What to Do After an Online Scam in Georgia: Bank, Police and Evidence

The first hour after a loss matters

FATF’s 2026 cyber-enabled fraud paper says fraud is expanding in scale and geography, and 90% of assessed jurisdictions identify it as a major money-laundering risk. Common schemes include phishing, fake investments, account takeovers, fake shops, impersonation and “bank employee” scams.

Immediate steps

• Contact the bank through its official channel and ask whether the card, account or transfer can be blocked or recalled.
• Change passwords from a clean device, enable two-factor authentication and terminate unknown sessions.
• Preserve chats, numbers, emails, URLs, wallet addresses, receipts, timestamps and screen recordings.
• Do not pay a so-called recovery agent and do not delete messages.
• Report the incident to police and involve counsel quickly where the loss is substantial, organised or cross-border.

Georgian legal relevance

The legal classification depends on the facts and may involve fraud, unlawful access to a computer system, forged documents or another offence. In a dispute with a bank, the contract, authentication method, notification time, bank response and the customer’s security duties may all matter. Virtual-asset platforms and stolen personal data can trigger additional AML and data-protection questions.

Do not edit screenshots, alert the suspected offender, publish private data or destroy the device. Technical evidence may be required by the bank, police, court or foreign platform. Recovery is not automatic, but fast notification, evidence preservation and the correct legal channel improve the response.

## წყაროები / Sources - FATF, Cyber-Enabled Fraud, 24 February 2026: https://www.fatf-gafi.org/en/publications/Methodsandtrends/cyber-enabled-fraud-digitalisation-ml-tf-pf-risks.html - Criminal Code of Georgia: https://matsne.gov.ge/en/document/view/16426?publication=284 - Law of Georgia on Facilitating the Prevention of Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism: https://matsne.gov.ge/en/document/view/4690334 - Law of Georgia on Personal Data Protection: https://www.matsne.gov.ge/en/document/view/5827307