Crypto scam recovery: what is real and what is a second fraud
Can a crypto scam recovery service get my money back?
Treat any service that asks for a fee first as a second scam. The FBI says private recovery companies "cannot issue seizure orders to recover cryptocurrency", and the FTC says anyone asking for an upfront fee is a scammer. The real routes are a report to IC3 or Report Fraud, the exchange the funds reached, and a lawyer.
Sources last checked Reviewed by CryptoGuardz Register Desk, editorial desk
US law enforcement and the UK financial regulator have each published warnings that the offer to recover lost crypto is, in the cases they see, the same crime run a second time on the same person. This page quotes those warnings with their dates and sets out the routes that exist. It names no recovery company and takes no commission.
Are crypto scam recovery services a scam?
The ones that ask for money first are, by the description of every authority read for this page. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) first warned about the pattern in August 2023:
The FBI warns of an increase in cryptocurrency recovery schemes, which exploit victims who lost cryptocurrency to fraud, scams, and theft.ic3.gov
Recovery scheme fraudsters charge an up-front fee and either cease communication with the victim after receiving an initial deposit or produce an incomplete or inaccurate tracing report and request additional fees to recover funds. Fraudsters may claim affiliation with law enforcement or legal services to appear legitimate.ic3.gov
By June 2024 the same scheme had a costume: fake law firms. IC3 put a figure on what victims reported losing to it in one year.
Between February 2023 and February 2024, cryptocurrency scam victims who were further exploited by fictitious law firms reported losses totaling over $9.9 million, according to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).ic3.gov
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission describes the recovery offer as the second act of one story:
Recovering money lost to fraud is rare and more difficult if dollars are first converted to bitcoin (BTC), Tether (USDT), or other crypto assets. The criminals know this, so they may call you claiming they can get your lost money back.cftc.gov
The UK Financial Conduct Authority calls the same operation a recovery room, and says where the victim’s details come from:
The people behind the original scam may operate the recovery room and contact the victim again pretending to be from a different firm or sell on their details to other recovery rooms.fca.org.uk
Scammers buy, sell, and trade these lists, expecting that people who have been scammed once are good targets for being scammed again.consumer.ftc.gov
Why a private company cannot recover stolen crypto for a fee
Moving stolen crypto back needs someone with power over the address or the account it sits in. A private recovery company has neither. The FBI says so in one line, and names who does have that power:
Private sector recovery companies cannot issue seizure orders to recover cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency exchanges only freeze accounts based on internal processes or in response to legal process. Victims can also choose to pursue civil litigation to seek recovery of their funds.ic3.gov
The FCA adds the detail that exposes most cold approaches. A caller who knows about your loss did not get it from the police:
Any report of fraud can only be shared between other law enforcement agencies. It cannot be shared with a private business operating a recovery room.fca.org.uk
A tracing report on its own freezes nothing. By the FBI line above, a freeze comes from the exchange’s internal process or from legal process, and a paid tracing report that ends in a request for a further fee is the pattern IC3 describes, not a step towards recovery.
Red flags in a recovery offer
Each item below is taken from the warnings quoted on this page. One of them is enough to stop.
- A fee before any work. The FTC: “Did someone contact you and ask for an upfront fee? That’s a scammer.”
- A fee given another name: the FTC lists “retainer fee,” “processing fee,” “administrative charge,” “tax”; the FCA lists “a tax, solicitor or administrative fees”.
- Payment asked for in crypto or gift cards. IC3, 2025: “The US Government does not request payment for law enforcement services provided.”
- A claim to work with the FBI, the CFPB, the FCA or another agency. IC3, 2025: “There are no law firms which are officially authorized partners of US Government agencies.”
- A caller who already knows the amounts and dates of your losses. IC3 lists “Having knowledge of the exact amounts and dates of previous wire transfers” as a red flag.
- A foreign bank account you are told to open, or a WhatsApp group with “bank processors” who want a verification fee. Both are in the 2025 IC3 list.
- No video call and no licence shown. IC3: “An unwillingness or inability to provide credentials or a license, not appearing on camera, and not conducting video meetings.”
- A webmail address. The FCA: “We never use webmail providers to contact consumers, nor does the Government, law enforcement agencies or law firms.”
What to never do
Never pay upfront for a recovery. The FTC puts it as a rule with no exception:
Government agencies and legitimate organizations will never ask for money to help you get a refund. They will never ask for your financial account numbers or other personal information and will not guarantee that you’ll get your money back. Anyone who does any of these things is a scammer.consumer.ftc.gov
Never share a seed phrase or a private key. No police force, regulator, exchange or lawyer needs it to trace or recover anything: the phrase controls the wallet itself, and whoever holds it can empty whatever is left. Never install a remote-access or screen-sharing app at a stranger’s request. It gives the caller your signed-in exchange and banking sessions directly. And do not sign in to a “recovery portal” or a foreign bank site you were sent a link to; the 2025 IC3 notice describes those sites as “a fraudulent platform to facilitate the ongoing scheme”.
What a legitimate recovery route looks like
None of these charges a fee to take a report, and none can promise the money back. They are the only parties with the power to act on the address or the account the funds reached.
1. Report it to law enforcement
In the United States, file with the FBI at ic3.gov and with your local FBI field office. IC3 asks for the details that let an investigator follow the money:
Financial transaction information such as date, type of payment, amount, account numbers involved (to include cryptocurrency address), name and address of the receiving financial institution, and receiving cryptocurrency addresses.ic3.gov
Include any recovery offer you received. The FTC takes reports at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
In the United Kingdom, Action Fraud has been replaced. The Serious Fraud Office:
From 4 December 2025, City of London Police is launching Report Fraud, a new service that replaces Action Fraud as the national platform for reporting cyber crime and fraud.gov.uk
Members of the public can report cyber crime and fraud at reportfraud.police.uk or by calling 0300 123 2040 (the phone number remains unchanged).gov.uk
The FCA asks for a report to it as well: “If you've lost money to a scam, report it to us and then contact Report Fraud.” Elsewhere, report to your local police and to the financial regulator that covers investment firms where you live.
2. Tell the exchange the funds moved through
If the stolen funds went to an account at a centralised exchange, that exchange can freeze the account under its own terms or under legal process, which is the power the FBI names. Write to it through the support channel inside its official site, give the transaction hashes and the receiving addresses, and include your police or IC3 reference. What each exchange’s terms let it freeze, and on what grounds, is quoted on its page in the exchange register, for example Coinbase and Kraken.
3. A lawyer, for civil action
The FBI notes that victims “can also choose to pursue civil litigation to seek recovery of their funds”. A court order is what obliges an exchange to hold or hand over an account. Find the lawyer yourself, through your national bar or law society register, rather than taking one who contacted you: the 2024 and 2025 IC3 notices are both about fake law firms that made the first move.
What we could not verify
- Action Fraud’s own recovery fraud page at actionfraud.police.uk: not verified. The site refused the request (HTTP 403) on 2026-10-08, so nothing on this page is quoted from it. The replacement of Action Fraud by Report Fraud is quoted from GOV.UK.
- How often any recovery succeeds through the routes above: No dataNone of the sources read publishes a recovery rate.
- The CFTC customer advisory page itself was not read separately; the text quoted here is the advisory as reproduced in full in release 8936-24.
Sources
- FBI IC3, PSA I-081123-PSA, Increase in Companies Falsely Claiming an Ability to Recover Funds Lost in Cryptocurrency Investment Scams, 11 August 2023
- FBI IC3, PSA I-062424-PSA, Fictitious Law Firms Targeting Cryptocurrency Scam Victims Offering to Recover Funds, 24 June 2024
- FBI IC3, PSA I-081325-PSA, Fictitious Law Firms Targeting Cryptocurrency Scam Victims Combine Multiple Exploitation Tactics While Offering to Recover Funds, 13 August 2025
- FTC Consumer Advice, Refund and Recovery Scams, December 2023
- CFTC Release 8936-24, CFTC Warns Customers to Watch for Follow-on Frauds, 30 July 2024
- FCA, Recovery room scams, first published 4 December 2019, last updated 19 January 2026
- Serious Fraud Office on GOV.UK, Report Fraud: New service from City of London Police, 4 December 2025