“I am receiving a large international wire transfer from Canada to the US. I received a call from someone claiming to be an intermediary bank who knew my transfer details and offered to convert the currency for a fee. Is it normal for intermediary banks to call and confirm international wires, and is my money safe?”
The caller’s knowledge does not by itself mean your wire has been stolen: legitimate intermediaries can receive transfer details and sometimes set an exchange rate. But no one can honestly confirm that your money is safe from the call alone; the sender’s Canadian bank and your U.S. bank must authenticate the transfer through contact details you already trust.
Your safest route depends on whether you paid or shared information and whether the two banks independently authenticate the caller.
End the call and contact your U.S. receiving bank using the number on a recent statement or the back of your card; have the sender contact the Canadian sending bank through its authenticated app, statement number, or card number. The FTC says to hang up and verify the story by contacting the bank yourself.
Continue only inside an authenticated bank channel. Ask for the currency sent, the institution performing conversion, the exchange rate, the fee, and the exact net U.S.-dollar amount before agreeing; CFPB Regulation E confirms that an can sometimes set the exchange rate, but that fact alone never authenticates a caller.
Treat this as possible fraud: contact the paying bank immediately and request reversal, change exposed passwords, enable two-factor authentication, and report the incident at IC3.gov. If a Social Security number was exposed, start the recovery plan at IdentityTheft.gov.
Do not use a number, link, email address, or callback instructions supplied by the caller.
These steps authenticate the wire first and move to fraud recovery only if money or sensitive information was exposed.
Right now
End the call and save the details
Do not agree to conversion, send a fee, follow a link, install software, share account credentials, or disclose a verification code. Save the details already given, then end the call; the FTC instructs you to get basic details and hang up.
Requirements
Before paying anything
Verify with the receiving and sending banks
Call your U.S. receiving bank using the number on a recent statement or the back of your card. Ask whether the incoming wire exists, its present status, its currency, the named intermediary, any hold, and any authorized conversion or fee. Have the sender call the Canadian sending bank through its authenticated app or the number on its statement/card and request the same route, status, currency, intermediary, and fee information.
Requirements
Only if the banks confirm it
Proceed only through an authenticated bank channel
Do not call the original caller back. If the banks confirm that conversion is required or offered by the real intermediary, complete it only through the receiving bank’s authenticated app, secure message center, branch, or a phone call you initiated to the official number; obtain the rate, fee, and exact net amount first.
Requirements
Immediately if you paid or shared access
Start payment and account recovery
Call the bank or credit union that sent the fee and say it was induced by a suspected scam; ask it to reverse the payment and refund you. Change every exposed or reused password and enable two-factor authentication. If a Social Security number was exposed, start at https://www.identitytheft.gov/.
Requirements
After notifying the bank
File an FBI IC3 report
Submit the incident at https://www.ic3.gov/ even if you are unsure whether it qualifies. State clearly that the caller knew details of a Canada-to-US wire, claimed to be an intermediary bank, and requested a currency-conversion fee.
Requirements
You are not the first to go through this. Here is how it went for others who asked the same thing.
u/whoshotyaboyr/personalfinanceMay 4, 2026
This answer is grounded in 31 CFR 1010.410, CFPB Regulation E, and current FTC, FCC, IdentityTheft.gov, and FBI IC3 instructions.
31 CFR 1010.410(f)
For qualifying U.S. transfers, an intermediary receives and forwards wire information, so knowledge of transaction details is possible but is not proof of the caller’s identity.
§ 1010.410(f) and (f)(2)
Any transmittor's financial institution or intermediary financial institution located within the United States shall include in any transmittal order for a transmittal of funds in the amount of $3,000 or more, information as required in this paragraph (f) : A receiving financial institution that acts as an intermediary financial institution, if it accepts a transmittal order, shall include in a corresponding transmittal order at the time it is sent to the next receiving financial institution, the following information, if received from the sender:
12 CFR 1005.31(b)(1)(iv)
An intermediary may legitimately set the exchange rate in a regulated remittance chain, but this rule does not authenticate the person who called.
§ 1005.31(b)(1)(iv), Official Interpretation paragraph 2
The exchange rate used by the provider for the remittance transfer need not be set by that provider. For example, an exchange rate set by an intermediary institution and applied to the remittance transfer would be the exchange rate used for the remittance transfer and must be disclosed by the provider.
FTC Consumer Alert: Unexpected Calls About Money
The FTC’s procedure for an unexpected money-related call is to end it and independently contact the bank through a known number.
Get some basic details, then hang up. What company or bank are they calling from? What’s the problem? Then hang up. Yes, hang up. Verify the story by contacting the company or bank yourself. Do you have an account with the company or bank the caller says they represent? Contact the company directly to find out what’s going on: Do call the phone number on a recent statement or the back of your card
FTC Consumer Alert: Unexpected Calls About Money
The FTC says not to give an unexpected caller account data, remote access, or verification codes.
And no matter who says they’re calling, never share your personal or account information, don’t grant anyone remote access to your phone or computer, and keep account verification codes to yourself.
FCC Caller ID Spoofing Guide
The number displayed on the phone can be falsified, so the FCC directs consumers to verify through an independently sourced number.
Spoofing is when a caller deliberately falsifies the information transmitted to your caller ID display to disguise their identity. If you get an inquiry from someone who says they represent a company or a government agency, hang up and call the phone number on your account statement, in the phone book, or on the company's or government agency's website to verify the authenticity of the request.
FTC: What To Do if You Were Scammed
If money was paid to the suspected scammer, the FTC says to contact the paying bank immediately and request reversal and refund.
Report it to your bank or credit union immediately. Ask them to reverse the payment and refund your money.
FTC: What To Do if You Were Scammed
The FTC gives specific account-protection steps when a scammer received login credentials.
Create a new, strong password for the account that was compromised. (If you use the same password on another account, change it there, too.) Turn on two-factor authentication on the account.
IdentityTheft.gov Recovery Process
IdentityTheft.gov is the federal recovery route if sensitive identity information was exposed or misused.
IdentityTheft.gov can help you report and recover from identity theft. Get a recovery plan. We'll use that info to create a personal recovery plan.
FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center
IC3 is the FBI’s reporting channel for suspected cyber-enabled fraud, including uncertain cases.
Tell us what happened. File a report to share information with the FBI. IC3 is the main intake form for a variety of complaints — everything from cyber-enabled frauds and scams to cybercrime — so file a report even if you are unsure of whether your complaint qualifies.
These are the official rules and agency instructions as published or current on the cited dates; rules and agency procedures can change.
This is general information about official processes, not legal advice; SettleKit is not a law firm.
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