You can file a claim with partial information and add to it later, so do not delay filing in order to complete this list. But the more of it you have, the faster your case can move.
About the payments
- Every payment you made: date, amount, currency and the method used.
- For card payments, the merchant name exactly as it appears on your statement. This is often nothing like the name of the website, and it is what the dispute gets filed against.
- For bank transfers, the beneficiary name, account number or IBAN, sort code or SWIFT/BIC, and the payment reference you used.
- For crypto, the transaction hash of each transfer, the receiving address, the network (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron and so on), and the wallet or exchange you sent from.
- Statements or confirmations for each payment. A PDF statement carries more weight than a screenshot of a balance.
About the people and the platform
- The website address, including any variant spellings, plus screenshots of the pages you saw.
- The company name they claimed, with any registration number, licence number or regulator they named. These claims are frequently false or lifted wholesale from a real firm, and proving that is often central to a case.
- Names, phone numbers, email addresses and social or messaging handles used to contact you.
- The full message history. Export the chat rather than screenshotting it where the app allows — exports preserve timestamps.
- Any app you were asked to install, and where the download link came from.
About what has happened since
- Whether you have reported it to your bank, and the fraud reference they gave you.
- Whether you have reported it to police or a national fraud body, and that reference number.
- Any response you have already had, including a refusal. A refusal is useful rather than a dead end — it usually names the grounds, which tells us what has to be challenged.
- Whether anyone has since contacted you offering to recover the money for you.
A note on screenshots
Capture the whole screen, with the address bar and system clock visible. Do not crop, annotate or edit the images. Unedited captures are far more persuasive to a bank or an exchange, and an obviously edited one can undermine an otherwise strong case.