If you sent money in the last few hours, stop reading and contact whoever you sent it through immediately — tell them it was fraud and ask if it can be stopped. Everything below tells you exactly who that is and what to say, for however you paid.
Speed matters more here than anything else on this page. Contact whoever you sent the money through, tell them it was a scam, and ask if the payment can be stopped or reversed. Exactly who to call depends on how you paid:
If you're not sure which of these applies, start with your bank or card company — they can often point you toward the right next call.
This is the second priority, right after the money.
Change the password on that account now, and on anything else using the same password. Turn on two-factor authentication if it isn't on already. If what you shared was a Social Security number, a bank account number, or other personal identification, that's a separate kind of exposure — a scammer can use it well after today. IdentityTheft.gov, run by the FTC, walks through a personal recovery plan built around exactly what was shared.
This matters, but it's not as time-sensitive as the two sections above — reporting can happen today or tomorrow, after the calls that actually protect your money and accounts. If you only do one of these, start with the FTC — it's the general starting point and takes a few minutes.
A local police report is also worth doing, especially if your bank or insurance later asks for one.
Scammers do this for a living. Fooling someone whose whole day involves talking to strangers, sounding official, and creating urgency isn't a sign of anything wrong with you — it's a sign the person on the other end was good at their one job. Reporting it, even if part of you would rather not talk about it, is what actually makes it harder for the same scam to work on the next person.