Recovery scams: how not to be a victim twice

We publish this because it is the most common way people who have already lost money lose more. It is also a fair test to apply to us.

Why you are contacted

Data from fraudulent platforms is sold and reused. If you have been defrauded once, your name, contact details, and the amount you lost are likely circulating among criminal groups. Being approached about recovery is not a coincidence — it is a consequence.

How second-stage fraud is structured

Contact arrives unsolicited, often within weeks of the original loss. The approach may impersonate a law firm, a "blockchain forensics" outfit, a government agency, a regulator's recovery unit, or an exchange's fraud department.

The pitch is that your funds have been located — sometimes with a screenshot of a blockchain explorer showing your genuine transaction, which proves only that they have the same public data you do. A fee is then required to release them: a retainer, a "court filing fee", a bond, a tax, a gas fee, a smart-contract unlock.

Each payment produces a new obstacle. There is no recovery, and there never was.

Signals that a recovery offer is fraudulent

• They contacted you first, particularly by WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, or a comment on a post about your loss.
• They guarantee recovery. No one can. Outcomes depend on where funds went, which services touched them, and whether any authority will act.
• They ask for your seed phrase or wallet keys. No investigation ever requires them. This is theft, not recovery.
• They ask for remote access to your computer or wallet.
• Payment is demanded in cryptocurrency, gift cards, or to a personal account rather than a business account.
• They claim to be law enforcement or a regulator and ask for money. Agencies do not charge victims to recover funds, and never take crypto.
• Fees escalate. One more payment, then another.
• No verifiable identity — no registered company, no address, no named professionals you can look up independently.
• They discourage you from telling anyone, or from involving the police.
• Pressure and deadlines on a decision that should not be urgent.

Questions any legitimate firm will answer plainly

Ask these of us, and of anyone else:

1. What is your registered legal entity name and company number, and in which jurisdiction?
2. Who specifically will handle my case, and what are their verifiable credentials?
3. What is your fee structure in writing, before I commit to anything?
4. What, realistically, is achievable in my case — and what is not?
5. Which authorities and exchanges will you engage, and what will you send them?
6. What happens if nothing is recovered? What have I paid for?
7. Can you provide a written engagement agreement I can have reviewed independently?

Evasion on any of these is the answer.

What honest work actually looks like

Legitimate investigation produces intelligence: a traced flow of funds, identified off-ramps, an evidenced report suitable for law enforcement or civil proceedings, and support in engaging exchanges and regulators.

It does not produce guaranteed restitution. Recovery, when it happens, comes from a regulated intermediary freezing funds, a law enforcement seizure, or a civil action — not from a private company reaching into a blockchain. Any firm implying otherwise is misrepresenting how this works.

Fees should be documented, proportionate, and paid to a corporate account. Be sceptical of pure contingency arrangements that require large up-front "costs", which is often a fee scheme wearing a no-win-no-fee costume.

If you have already paid a recovery scammer

• Stop all further payments immediately.
• Report it — it is a separate offence and should be recorded as such.
• If you paid by card or bank transfer, contact your bank at once; these rails sometimes retain recourse that crypto does not.
• Preserve every message and receipt.
• Expect further approaches, including from people claiming to recover the recovery fee. The pattern repeats.

Our position

We do not contact victims unsolicited. We do not guarantee recovery, and we will tell you when a case is unlikely to be recoverable — a mixer, a privacy coin, or a cash off-ramp often means the trail ends. We do not ask for seed phrases, private keys, or remote access under any circumstances.

If anyone claiming to represent us does any of those things, they are not us. Contact us through the details published on this site and report it.