What To Do After Entering A Scam Holiday Giveaway
Learn which payments to stop, passwords to change, and reports to file after a fake holiday prize offer.
If you entered a scam holiday giveaway, stop replying and do not send more money, gift cards, or personal details. Then secure your payments and accounts and report what happened. A scam holiday giveaway is a fake prize offer that uses holiday urgency to collect fees or sensitive data.
The next steps depend on what you shared: payment, passwords, or identity details.
Verification note: Program terms and availability can change. This page was checked against linked sources on November 03, 2026.
How can you tell the prize offer was fake?
A request for money or sensitive data to claim a win is a clear warning. The Federal Trade Commission explains in its alert on impersonators posing as charities and sweepstakes that anyone told to pay a fee, tax, shipping, or processing charge, or to provide a Social Security number to collect a prize is dealing with a scam because real prizes are free. U.S.
sweepstakes must be free and decided by chance. The same Federal Trade Commission alert states it is illegal to require payment or a purchase to enter or to improve odds of winning.
What should you do if you paid?
Act quickly with the service you used. The Federal Trade Commission advises in its guide on what to do after a scam to immediately contact the bank, card issuer, payment app, wire-transfer company, or gift-card issuer used and ask whether the payment can be stopped or reversed. Keep evidence together before you call.
Save these items for the company and for reports:
- texts, emails, and prize URLs
- screenshots of entry pages and messages
- payment records, receipts, and card statements
How do you lock down accounts and identity data?
If you gave a password and can still log in, change it at once. Use a strong unique password, change it anywhere else you reused it, and turn on two-factor authentication. If you shared a Social Security number, bank login, or other identity data, get a recovery plan.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau points to IdentityTheft.gov in its guide on steps for identity theft victims for a free personal recovery plan and FTC Identity Theft Report.
Where should you report it?
Report the holiday giveaway scam to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. The FBI explains in its Take a Beat guidance on holiday fraud to keep texts, emails, URLs, screenshots, and payment records with the report. Reporting helps law enforcement track patterns but does not itself reverse a payment.
According to FBI Cleveland and CISA holiday-scam guidance, victims filing an IC3 report within 72 hours have shown greater success at potential fund recovery, so file quickly and keep copies of everything sent.