About Fraud First Aid
Fraud First Aid helps people in the United States act quickly and safely after a scam, identity theft or a data breach, and protect their families before it happens.
Most advice online is either generic ("use strong passwords") or written to sell you something. When you've just sent money to a scammer, you need something else: what to do in the next ten minutes, who to call, and what you can realistically expect. That's what we write.
What you'll find here
We launched in September 2026 and add a new guide most weekdays. Today the site has:
- 50 step-by-step guides, each starting with what to do in the next ten minutes and ending with the official sources it relies on.
- Free tools that run entirely in your browser: a scam text and email checker with 53 red flags, each tied to the official guidance it comes from; a scam recovery checklist; a data breach checklist; a credit freeze tracker; a directory of where to report each type of scam; and a printable family scam safety plan for older relatives.
- Fraud and identity theft reports for every state, for 401 metro areas, by age group and by how the scam started and how people paid, from the FTC's Consumer Sentinel data, with the data files available to download.
Who is behind it
The site is run by Alex Fernández, an information security and compliance auditor (ISO/IEC 27001 Lead Auditor, ISO/IEC 42001 Lead Auditor). He is our expert reviewer: guides he has reviewed show the date of his review.
How we work
- Every step links to the official source it comes from: FTC, CFPB, FBI/IC3, IRS, Social Security, USPS and the credit bureaus.
- Every guide shows when it was last fact-checked against its sources. Guides our expert has reviewed also show the date of his review.
- Our tools run in your browser and never collect what you enter.
- We correct mistakes quickly. See our editorial policy.
What we are not
We are not a law firm, a financial adviser or a government agency, and we can't recover money or investigate individual cases. Be careful with anyone who says they can do that for a fee: it's a common follow-up scam (FTC).
How the site is funded
See how we make money. Advertisers never see or approve our guides before they are published.