Qué hacer en las primeras 48 horas tras perder dinero por una estafa

The first 48 hours matter more than anything

If you have just realised you have lost money to a scam, the most useful thing you can do in the next two days is also the calmest one: stop the bleed, preserve the evidence, and notify the right people. Not in that order — all at once.

Stop the bleed

If the firm still has your card or bank details, call your bank now and ask them to (1) block the card, (2) place a fraud alert on the account, and (3) reverse any pending transactions. Do not message the firm before doing this — many scam operators try to extract one more payment the moment they sense you have realised.

Preserve the evidence

Take screenshots of everything: the trading platform, your account balance on it, every chat or email, the firm's website (a full-page screenshot, not a snippet), and the names of any "account managers" you have spoken to. Export your bank statements covering the relevant period as PDF. Save it all to one folder. We have seen cases lost because a website was taken down before the client could capture it — minutes matter.

Notify the right people, in order

1. **Your bank.** A formal fraud report has to exist for any chargeback or push-payment refund to follow. 2. **The card scheme** (Visa / Mastercard) if a card was used — this opens the dispute window. 3. **The financial regulator** in your country (CNMV in Spain, FCA in the UK, BaFin in Germany, AMF in France). A regulator complaint does not by itself recover money, but it creates an official record that significantly helps the rest of the process. 4. **Police**, if the loss is meaningful or the firm is clearly fraudulent. Get the crime reference number.

What not to do

Do not pay any "release fee" or "tax" to recover your funds. This is the second-stage scam — and it is the most common way victims lose more money. Legitimate banks and regulators never ask you to send money to recover money.