Someone says they can recover the money you lost? That's a second scam.
- You already lost money to a scam. Now someone contacts you saying they can get it back: a lawyer, an investigator, an agency, a crypto-recovery service.
- It's a recovery scam, a second fraud built specifically to hit people who've already been scammed once.
- They ask for an upfront fee, a retainer, a tax, or a deposit to "release" your funds. No real recovery works that way, and no government agency charges you.
- If you've already paid a recovery scammer, stop and follow the steps below.
This is a scam, and a particularly cruel one because it targets people at their lowest. Anyone who guarantees they can recover your lost money and asks for a fee first is scamming you again. Legitimate services and government agencies do not charge upfront fees to recover funds.3
Does this sound familiar?
Below are reconstructed examples of how recovery scammers make contact, recreated to show the pattern. They impersonate real law firms and agencies, including the FBI's own complaint center. Those organizations do not operate this way. (Illustrations, not real messages. Names, addresses, and numbers are fictional.)
The channel and the cover story change: a law firm, a government unit, a blockchain expert, a consumer advocate. The structure is always the same: they know you were scammed, they promise to fix it, and they need money first.
How it works
Recovery scams run on a simple, brutal logic: the best person to scam is someone who has already been scammed. They're desperate to recover the loss, and their details are already circulating. (The visuals below are illustrations of the pattern.)
Red flags to catch it early
None of these alone is proof. Several together means stop.
A retainer, release fee, tax, deposit, or "unlock" charge before you receive anything. This is the core of the scam.4
They reached out to you, not the other way around, about a loss they somehow already know about.
They say they're a lawyer, a government agency, the FBI's IC3, a consumer advocate, or a licensed recovery firm. Scammers impersonate all of these.3
Promises that your funds are recoverable, often with a precise-sounding figure like a 95% success rate. Real recovery is never guaranteed.
"We recover 95% of cases. Funds already located."
Knowing what hit you and how much you lost feels like proof. It usually means your details are on a list that's been bought or sold.
The fee is demanded in hard-to-reverse methods. Often the same payment type you lost money through the first time.
It's rarely quick and never charges you a fee first. Here's the honest picture:
- Reporting is free. Government agencies and law enforcement never charge to take a fraud report or to help.3
- Money moved by card or bank is sometimes recoverable through a dispute or chargeback. Contact your bank or card issuer directly.
- Crypto and wire transfers are usually gone once sent. Be wary of anyone promising to "trace and return" them for a fee.
- If you hire a lawyer, you choose and contact them, they don't cold-call you, and fees are clear and not contingent on a guaranteed "release."
Already paid a recovery scammer?
Stop, cut contact, document, report
It's not your fault. These scams are built to exploit hope, and they're designed to keep going.
Where to report it
How big is this problem?
Recovery scams are a growing second wave riding on top of every other scam. As crypto and investment fraud have surged, so has the business of re-victimising the people those scams left behind.
The FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report flagged recovery scams as a rising threat, in which fictitious law firms or supposed government officials target cryptocurrency-scam victims with offers to recover lost funds. In one variant, fraudsters impersonated employees of the FBI's own Internet Crime Complaint Center. The IC3 logged 10,516 recovery-scam complaints in 2025, with an estimated $1.4 billion in losses.1 The Bureau has warned about fictitious recovery firms repeatedly since 2023.2
The FTC describes the mechanics plainly: scammers buy and sell "sucker lists" of people who've already paid scammers, then make contact posing as a government agency, a law firm, or a consumer group, promising to recover the loss for an upfront payment.3 It's a form of advance-fee fraud, paying now for the promise of a much bigger sum later that never arrives.4
What makes recovery scams so effective is timing and information. They reach people who are desperate to undo a loss, and they open with details that feel like proof: the platform, the amount, the date. None of that is special knowledge. It's data that travels between scammers. The promise of getting your money back is the bait, and the upfront fee is the trap.
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), 2025 Internet Crime Report and FBI summary. Recovery scams as a rising threat; ~10,500 complaints and an estimated $1.4B in losses in 2025; fraudsters impersonating IC3 employees.
- FBI, "Fictitious Law Firms Targeting Cryptocurrency Scam Victims Offering to Recover Funds" (PSA, originally 2024, updated; building on a 2023 alert). Recurring official warnings on fake recovery firms since 2023.
- Federal Trade Commission, "Refund and Recovery Scams." "Sucker lists," impersonation of agencies and law firms, and the rule that agencies don't charge to recover money.
- U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, "Don't be Re-Victimized by Recovery Frauds." Recovery fraud as advance-fee fraud targeting prior victims.
We document recurring online scam patterns using primary sources: government agencies, law enforcement, and security researchers. We do not charge for help and never offer to recover funds. The agencies and firms named here are real bodies being impersonated. Ads on this page do not influence our reporting. Read about how we research or who we are.