What to Do in the First Hour After Fraud

Before Anything Else

If money has just moved, stop reading and call your credit union on the number on your card. Wires and payment app transfers can sometimes be halted or recalled while the funds are still in transit, and that window is measured in hours. Everything below can wait until after that call.

One more thing worth saying plainly: shame is the main reason people delay, and delay is the main reason money is not recovered. The people taking your call handle this weekly and are not judging you.

The First Hour

1. Call your credit union. Say clearly what happened, what you sent, how, and when. Ask them to attempt a recall or stop payment, freeze the affected card or account, and open a fraud claim. Write down the claim reference and who you spoke to.
2. If you gave anyone remote access to a device, disconnect it from the internet. Do not use it for banking until it has been checked.
3. Change the password on the affected account, from a different device, and turn on two-factor authentication if it is not already on. Change it anywhere you reused it, which matters more than it sounds.
4. Check where the money actually went. If it was a payment app, report it in the app as well; if a card, the issuer's dispute process is separate from your credit union's.

The First Day

• Report it officially. The FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, and if identity theft is involved, identitytheft.gov, which generates a recovery plan and an official affidavit. File a police report where a report number will be needed for disputes.
• Freeze your credit with all three bureaus if any personal information was exposed. A freeze is free, stops new accounts being opened in your name, and can be lifted temporarily when you need credit yourself. It does not affect your score.
• Get your credit reports from annualcreditreport.com and read them for accounts you do not recognise.
• List everything exposed. Card numbers, logins, Social Security number, date of birth, answers to security questions. That list drives everything else.

The First Week

• Watch every account, not just the one hit. People often reuse credentials, and scammers try them elsewhere.
• Set up alerts for transactions and logins if you have not already.
• Replace exposed cards rather than watching them.
• Follow up on your claim in writing. Verbal updates are hard to rely on later, and a written trail matters if a dispute goes badly.
• Check your mail is arriving. A sudden gap can mean a redirect was filed in your name.

What Recovery Realistically Looks Like

Honesty helps more than optimism here. Unauthorised card transactions are usually resolved in your favour, and that is the strongest position. Unauthorised electronic transfers from your account have defined protections and a dispute process. Payments you were deceived into authorising yourself are the hardest, because you made them, and recovery often depends on whether the receiving account still holds the funds.

Speed is the variable you control. Everything else is largely decided by what method was used, which is why choosing reversible methods in advance matters more than any of this.

Afterwards

Two things are worth doing once the urgent work is finished.

First, write down what happened while it is fresh: the sequence, the numbers, the times. Disputes can run for weeks and memory does not hold up.

Second, decide the rule you will use next time, now that the pressure is off. Almost everyone who has been through this says the same thing afterwards, which is that they knew the advice and did not have a rule. Calling back on a number you find yourself, and never paying in a way you cannot reverse, would prevent most of what arrives.

To reach KCCU directly: contact KCCU, or use the number on your card or statement.