How do I report a potential scam or attempt to fraud in America?

vickie b: How do I report a potential scam or attempt to fraud in America?
I received one of those online letters stating that I could have access to a massive bank account overseas. I know the letter is a scam, but need to know who to report it to. I don’t want to hit the “spam” button, because I want to at least try to catch these crooks, not block them. Can anyone help?

Answers and Views:

Answer by justanotherone
Report it to your local BBB. They’ll know who to report it to.

Answer by toetagme
If it came from a yahoo address forward it to “[email protected]”. Most others also have an abuse dept. you can forward it to. Otherwise, delete it and forget it. If you open it, your address will be shared and you will get more and more of them. You can also add them to your list of “blocked” addresses.

Answer by xmalkaviansx
Your best bet would be to contact and inform the FBI and also visit

Answer by zuezug
At first I sent them Pee Wee Herman Dance Card
https://www.tvdance.com/peewee/
but that got old….
now I simply delete….
forget about tracking down etc…
they somewhere in Africa

Answer by Joe H
Tell your State Police. If they are not the
authority that deals with the situation, they
will direct you to the right government unit.

Answer by engineer50
Most of these are from overseas so not much can be done.

Answer by evelynj1948
Report it with printed copy of email to the Attorney Gerneral’s Office for the state that you live in.

Also report it to the email carrier you have for fraud and abuse.

Answer by angelguide
I used to recieve tons of these letters.
I just delete them.
You can report them to whichever internet service was used e.g.Yahoo.A.O.L. etc,
Just tell others about it so you can prevent someone from being scammed.

Answer by ajsnskool
The proper agency to report these scam letters to is the US Federal Trade Commission. They have an online website for you to fill out a form reporting the fraudulent email at:

Good luck.

Answer by Ron N
There is no agency for the exception of the FBI’s Cybor
division that could remotely deal with this,

Good luck and please dont fall prey to this crap,

Answer by Citizen1984
I believe you can report Internet scams to the FBI at www.fbi.gov.

Are you sure it’s a scam? I got a letter from a Nigerian gentleman whose father was the Minister of mining and he just needs my checking account number and PIN so he can give me 10% of all of the diamonds in King Solomon’s mines. But i hit the delete button and now I’ll be stuck answering Yahoo questions until I die.

Internet scams are the great Nigerian pastime and, at least, they send you a story to read.