Wire recall: what the first hours decide

A wire transfer is the payment method where the clock matters most and where the rules that protect card users are thinnest. If you have sent one to a scammer, the useful question is not “who is responsible” but “can the receiving bank still stop the money”. This post sets out what the FBI, FinCEN and the federal regulations say, and what to do in the first hour. It describes US channels. Rules and bank procedures differ by country and by institution, and nothing here is legal or financial advice.

Why a wire is not a card payment

With a card, you ask your card issuer to dispute the payment. The FTC’s advice for a credit card payment to a scammer is to report it to the issuer immediately and ask for a refund, and it says federal law protects you from unauthorised use. Our glossary entry on chargebacks and the companion post on how the way you paid decides whether you get money back cover that route.

A wire works differently. The money moves bank to bank, and what you ask for is a recall: a request that the receiving bank send it back. The federal error-resolution rules for electronic transfers (Regulation E) say they do not cover “any transfer of funds through Fedwire or through a similar wire transfer system that is used primarily for transfers between financial institutions or between businesses”. How a particular bank’s consumer wire is classified under that wording is a legal question this post does not try to answer. The practical result in the FBI’s guidance is the same: you start with a recall request, not a dispute. See also the wire recall glossary entry.

One related regime does give a cancellation right. A “remittance transfer” is an electronic transfer of funds to a recipient in a foreign country sent through a remittance provider. If you ask to cancel within 30 minutes of paying, and the money has not been picked up or deposited, the provider must refund you within three business days. Thirty minutes is a narrow window, and it does not apply to every international wire.

What a recall request is

The FBI’s wording is to contact the originating financial institution “as soon as fraud is recognized” and request a recall or reversal, “as well as a Hold Harmless Letter or Letter of Indemnity”. The IC3 pages name those documents but do not explain them, so ask your bank what it needs from you. The FBI’s 2025 report adds that different institutions have different policies, and that it is worth knowing what help yours will give.

A recall can only return money that is still there. The FBI’s 2024 report gives an example: a bank froze $5.1 million of a $6,661,650 transfer, and the report says the rest was wired out immediately on deposit to accounts in Spain and China.

The FBI’s Recovery Asset Team and the Financial Fraud Kill Chain

The IC3 Recovery Asset Team was established in 2018. It works with financial institutions and FBI field offices to help freeze funds for victims of fraudulent domestic and international transfers, through a process called the Financial Fraud Kill Chain. The FBI’s process sheet describes the domestic version briefly: if criteria are met, the transaction details go to a contact at the recipient bank, which is asked to freeze the account, and the team then contacts the relevant FBI field office. The sheet does not list the criteria, and we found no published dollar threshold or cut-off time in the FBI documents we read.

For 2025 the FBI reports 3,900 incidents with $1,163,919,846 in attempted theft, of which $679,013,183 was frozen, a 58% success rate. Domestic incidents numbered 3,574 (with $507,042,623 frozen) and international ones 326 ($171,970,560 frozen). The rate was 71% in 2023 and 66% in 2024 by the FBI’s own figures. The reports do not explain the fall.

Two cautions. These are incidents where the team started the process, not every reported wire fraud: IC3 reported total losses above $20 billion for 2025. And the figures are amounts frozen. The reports we read do not say how much was later returned to victims.

The 2025 report also says the process saw a rise in tech support and account takeover cases, and that account takeover cases can involve 50 or more transactions to different accounts at several banks at once.

The 72-hour figure

For international wires there is a second channel. FinCEN’s Rapid Response Program asks foreign financial intelligence units to interdict and recall payments, and FinCEN’s 2022 fact sheet says the program has helped recover more than $1.1 billion since 2015. Its fact sheet says it does not ensure recovery, but that the program has had greater success when wires are reported to law enforcement within 72 hours of the transaction. It tells victims not to contact FinCEN directly: you start with a complaint to law enforcement, such as IC3.

You will often see 72 hours described as IC3’s rule. In the IC3 documents we read the language is “time is of the essence”, “immediately” and “as quickly as possible”. The 72-hour figure we could verify is FinCEN’s, about success rates, not a deadline after which nothing can be done.

What the bank can and cannot do

Your bank can send the recall request, supply the transaction details and, as the FBI’s alert puts it, contact the FBI to start the Financial Fraud Kill Chain. It cannot make the receiving bank comply, and it cannot recover money that has already been moved on. The outcome depends on the receiving bank and on where the money is by the time the request arrives.

The first hour

These steps follow the FBI, FinCEN and FTC guidance.

• Call your bank now, using the number on its website or your card, and ask for a wire recall. Ask what documents it needs, including any indemnity letter.
• Give full transaction details: amount, date, receiving bank, account and reference. The FBI asks for these in the IC3 report.
• File at ic3.gov whatever the amount, with the banking information. See our US reporting page.
• If you used a company such as Western Union or MoneyGram, tell it you were tricked and ask for a refund, as the FTC advises.
• Keep every record, including messages and payment documentation.
• Expect the follow-up scam. People who have just lost money are targeted with offers to recover it. See what happens after you reply.

In Australia, Scamwatch’s advice is the same in spirit: contact your bank or card provider immediately and ask them to stop any transactions. Our Australia and UK pages list local channels.

What the sources do not say

No source we read gives IC3’s eligibility criteria, a minimum amount, or how long the receiving bank has to respond. The success rates apply only to cases the team took on. And we found no figure for how often a bank’s own recall request, without the FBI process, gets money back. For the business version of this fraud, see business email compromise and ten years of BEC losses.