A fake tracking link, a subscription you never meant to sign up for, an email pretending to be the IRS — the common thread in most consumer fraud is that the person or company behind it is betting you'll just give up. Most people do. Reporting it to the federal government takes about ten minutes and doesn't cost anything, but it's worth understanding exactly what that report does and doesn't accomplish, because the two are easy to confuse.
What the FTC actually is
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the US federal agency responsible for protecting consumers from deceptive, unfair, or fraudulent business practices. You report to it through ReportFraud.ftc.gov — a single federal intake point for scams, fake products, impersonation attempts, and shady business practices of almost any kind.
What actually happens to your report
This is the part most articles get wrong, so it's worth being precise: the FTC does not investigate or resolve your individual complaint. It says so plainly on its own site. What it does instead is feed your report into the Consumer Sentinel Network, a secure database that federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies — including the FBI and state attorneys general — can access for free once they've signed a confidentiality agreement with the FTC. In 2024 alone, Sentinel received 6.5 million consumer reports.
Investigators use that database to spot patterns: the same phone number, website, or bank account showing up across hundreds of separate complaints is exactly the kind of signal that turns individual reports into an actual case. Your single report is unlikely to trigger an investigation on its own — but it's very often the pattern, not any one complaint, that does.
What kinds of fraud go here (and what should go elsewhere)
ReportFraud.ftc.gov is built to take a wide range of consumer harm:
- Fake online stores and counterfeit products
- Impersonation scams — fake IRS, Social Security, tech support, or delivery company calls and emails designed to steal payment details
- Subscription and billing traps, including services that make cancelling deliberately difficult
- Prize, lottery, and sweepstakes scams
- Robocalls and unwanted telemarketing
Two important exceptions worth knowing before you file: if your identity has actually been stolen — someone opened credit, filed taxes, or took out a loan in your name — go to IdentityTheft.gov instead. It's also run by the FTC, but unlike the general fraud form, it generates a personal recovery plan and an FTC Identity Theft Affidavit that you can use directly with banks, credit bureaus, and the IRS. And if your bank account itself was compromised, contact your bank's fraud team immediately, in parallel — don't wait for a federal report to do that first.
A note on subscription traps specifically
The FTC's "Click-to-Cancel" rule, which would have required companies to make cancelling a subscription as easy as signing up for one, was struck down by a federal appeals court in July 2025 on procedural grounds — it is not currently in effect. The FTC has since proposed a new version of the rule, but that process is still ongoing. In the meantime, the agency continues to bring enforcement actions against deceptive subscription practices under existing laws (the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act and the FTC Act's general ban on unfair or deceptive practices), and many states — including California, New York, and Massachusetts — have their own, stricter cancellation laws that already apply regardless of what happens federally.
What to have ready before you file
- The exact name of the company, website, or caller, plus any phone numbers, email addresses, or URLs involved
- The date and amount of any payment made, and how you paid (card, bank transfer, gift card, cryptocurrency)
- Screenshots of the listing, website, or communication
- Copies of any confirmation emails, receipts, or chat transcripts
- A plain, chronological account of what happened — what you were told, what you were asked to do, and when
How to file, step by step
- Go to reportfraud.ftc.gov and select the category that best matches what happened to you.
- Answer the guided questions — the form adapts based on the type of scam you select.
- Provide as much specific detail as you have: names, numbers, dates, and amounts.
- Submit the report. You'll get a confirmation, and you can download a copy of what you submitted.
- If your identity was stolen as part of the scam, separately file at IdentityTheft.gov to get your recovery plan and affidavit.
What your report is actually useful for afterward
Don't expect your FTC report alone to force a refund from a company — the FTC doesn't broker individual settlements. What the report does give you is an official, timestamped federal record of what happened, which is genuinely useful in a few concrete situations: disputing a charge with your card issuer or bank, filing an insurance claim, supporting a police report, or as backup documentation if you later pursue the company through small claims court or a state attorney general's consumer protection office. If a business is already under FTC or state investigation, your report also becomes part of the evidence base regulators use to pursue restitution for everyone affected — sometimes including you, months or years later, through an FTC redress program.