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Money sent to a US account by fraud: what can be recalled

Once a United States bank accepts a payment order, cancelling it works only if that bank agrees. What an American account adds is a federal channel that can ask the recipient bank to freeze it.

Reviewed by the Tradergy editorial team · September 2026
In short

Under Article 4A of the Uniform Commercial Code, as enacted in the relevant state, cancelling an accepted payment order is not effective unless the receiving bank agrees. Federal Reserve Operating Circular No. 6 states that a Reserve Bank has no obligation to cancel one and owes only the duty to relay the message. A recall is a request. Because the recipient bank is American, the FBI's Recovery Asset Team can contact it and ask for a freeze.

Once a United States bank has accepted a payment order, cancelling it works only if that bank agrees. The Australian sending bank can pass a recall request on, and the receiving bank decides. What an American account adds is a federal channel that can ask the recipient bank to freeze it. The mechanics behind a transfer are set out in how international transfers work.

Key Takeaways

  • Article 4A of the Uniform Commercial Code, as enacted in the relevant state, makes cancellation ineffective once the receiving bank has accepted the order, unless that bank agrees.
  • Federal Reserve Operating Circular No. 6, effective 18 February 2025, states a Reserve Bank has no obligation to cancel a payment order and owes only the duty to relay the message.
  • The FBI's Recovery Asset Team, established February 2018, asks a domestic recipient bank to freeze the account. Being American is what makes that bank reachable.
  • The FBI reported a 58 per cent freeze success rate for 2025, down from 82 per cent in 2020.
  • The National Anti-Scam Centre recorded payment redirection scams costing Australians AUD 166.8 million in 2025, up 9.3 per cent.

Why can the receiving bank refuse a recall?

Article 4A of the Uniform Commercial Code, as enacted in the relevant state, governs a wire transfer into a United States bank. Section 4A-211(c) provides that after a payment order has been accepted, cancellation is not effective unless the receiving bank agrees, or a funds-transfer system rule allows it without that agreement.

The central bank goes further about its own network, and does so expressly notwithstanding that section. Federal Reserve Operating Circular No. 6, effective 18 February 2025, states at section 8.1.4 that a Reserve Bank has no obligation to cancel or amend a payment order, even where it receives a request for return of funds. Once such a message is accepted, its only obligation is to send it to the participant the sender identified. A Reserve Bank here means one of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks, which the Federal Reserve Board lists by district and Reserve Bank city, numbered one to twelve from Boston to San Francisco.

Acceptance is the hinge, and section 4A-211 itself says when it has not happened yet. Under section 4A-211(b) a cancellation works only if it reaches the receiving bank in a way and at a time that give it a reasonable opportunity to act before it accepts the order. Section 4A-211(d) adds that an order which is never accepted is cancelled by operation of law at the close of the fifth funds-transfer business day. Before acceptance there is something to stop; after it, there is money in somebody's account.

So a recall travels as a message. The Australian bank asks, the network relays, the American bank decides. Its customer decides too, because the bank needs authorisation to debit an account it does not own.

What does an American recipient bank change?

The FBI's Recovery Asset Team was established in February 2018 to help FBI field offices freeze funds for victims who transferred money to domestic accounts under fraudulent pretences. Its process is the Financial Fraud Kill Chain. The FBI Cyber Division process sheet describes it: where criteria are met, transaction details go to an identified point of contact at the recipient bank, notifying it of fraudulent activity and requesting that the account be frozen.

That is a request as well, and nothing in the published process describes it as binding on the bank that receives it. What differs is who is asking and where it lands: it arrives from a federal law enforcement agency at a named fraud contact, rather than as an indemnity form relayed from a foreign bank.

The channel is not limited to American complainants. The Internet Crime Complaint Center states that anyone affected by a cyber-enabled crime may file, including citizens of another country, and its 2025 report lists 2,069 complaints from Australia.

How often does a freeze succeed?

Measure, 2025, from the FBI Internet Crime Report Figure
Incidents acted on 3,900
Attempted theft USD 1,163,919,846
Frozen USD 679,013,183
Success rate 58%
Domestic kill chain 3,574 incidents, USD 507,042,623 frozen
International kill chain 326 incidents, USD 171,970,560 frozen

All figures are from the FBI's 2025 annual report, published 6 April 2026. The success rate has fallen at each of the four points measured here: 82 per cent in 2020, 71 per cent in 2023, 66 per cent in 2024 and 58 per cent in 2025, each taken from that year's own report, listed below. The intervening years are not in this series. The domestic count above covers only the wires the FBI acted on.

The 2024 report records a case of this shape. In September 2024 the FBI legal attaché in Singapore referred a business email compromise transaction of USD 6,661,650 sent to a United States recipient bank. The Recovery Asset Team initiated a kill chain request, and the bank blocked the account and froze USD 5,100,000. The report explains the gap: the funds not available had been wired out immediately upon deposit, to accounts in Spain and China.

That second hop is why timing carries weight. A Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) fact sheet dated 15 April 2026 states the agency is most likely to interdict or recover funds when fraudulently induced wire transfers are reported to law enforcement within 72 hours of the transaction. That is a statement about odds. The FBI has published no qualifying window and no minimum amount for the kill chain; its process sheets say only that criteria must be met.

What does the pattern look like from the Australian side?

Business email compromise is the pattern most associated with these transfers, though the mix is shifting. The Internet Crime Complaint Center's 2025 report records that most kill chain incidents were business email compromise in the past, and that 2025 saw a rise in tech support and account takeover initiations. The same report puts business email compromise losses at USD 3,046,598,558 for the year. Of that loss, 86 per cent moved by wire transfer or by the Automated Clearing House (ACH), the United States domestic payments network.

Australia measures the same behaviour under a different name. The National Anti-Scam Centre's Targeting Scams report for 2025, published 30 March 2026, records payment redirection scams costing AUD 166.8 million, up 9.3 per cent on 2024. It was the second-largest category by loss and the only one of the top five that rose. The same report puts total reported scam losses at AUD 2.18 billion across 481,523 reports.

What steps do the agencies set out?

  1. The sending bank comes first. The FBI process sheet instructs contacting the originating financial institution as soon as the fraud is recognised, to request a recall or reversal and a hold harmless letter or letter of indemnity. The 2025 report notes policies differ between institutions.
  2. A complaint to the Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov, which accepts complaints from outside the United States.
  3. Reporting in Australia. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) publishes the order on its Moneysmart service: stop sending money, block contact, tell the bank and ask it to stop further transactions, then report to Scamwatch. ReportCyber and the Australian Federal Police also take reports. Scamwatch collects reports and shares them with Australian and international law enforcement and other government bodies. Its role is collection and disruption.
  4. The transfer details. FinCEN publishes the fields its own programme needs, and they work as a checklist. On the sending side: the account name and number, the institution, and the country of the originating branch. On the receiving side: the beneficiary's account name and number, the institution, and the country of the receiving branch, the date, and the currency and amount.

Does Australian law give the sender a remedy today?

Largely not yet. The Scams Prevention Framework Act 2025 (Cth) places obligations on banks, telecommunications providers and digital platforms to prevent, detect, disrupt, report and respond to scams, with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission as lead regulator. ASIC is responsible for the banking sector code, and the Australian Communications and Media Authority for telecommunications. Membership of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority became mandatory for regulated entities from 1 September 2026, and most of the framework's obligations commence on 31 March 2027. A payment made today sits before that date.

Where to look next

Sources

General information about sending money to the United States. Not financial or legal advice, and not a recommendation of any product or institution. Whether a payment is returned depends on facts this page cannot know. Reviewed by the Tradergy editorial team, September 2026.

Common questions

Can a United States bank be made to return money sent by fraud?

No. Article 4A of the Uniform Commercial Code, as enacted in the relevant state, provides at section 4A-211(c) that once a payment order has been accepted, cancellation is not effective unless the receiving bank agrees, or a funds-transfer system rule allows it without that agreement. The bank also needs authorisation to debit its customer's account.

Can someone in Australia file a complaint with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center?

Yes. The Internet Crime Complaint Center states that anyone who believes they are affected by a cyber-enabled crime may file, including citizens of another country. Its 2025 annual report records 2,069 complaints from Australia that year.

Is there a deadline for reporting a fraudulent wire?

A Financial Crimes Enforcement Network fact sheet dated 15 April 2026 states that the agency is most likely to be able to interdict or recover funds when fraudulently induced wire transfers are reported to law enforcement within 72 hours of the transaction. That describes that agency's likelihood of success. The FBI publishes no qualifying window and no minimum amount for the kill chain.

Why is money often gone before an account can be frozen?

Funds are commonly moved on soon after arriving. The FBI's 2024 annual report describes a transfer of USD 6,661,650 into a United States bank where USD 5,100,000 was frozen and the rest had been wired out immediately upon deposit, to accounts in Spain and China.

Does the Scams Prevention Framework Act 2025 give an Australian sender a remedy now?

Largely not yet. Membership of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority became mandatory for regulated entities from 1 September 2026, but most of the framework's obligations commence on 31 March 2027.