Recovery scams targeting fraud victims
After a fraud, victims are placed on lists that are sold to recovery scammers who approach them posing as law firms or government recovery agencies. They charge upfront fees, exploit emotional vulnerability, and disappear with additional payments.
What we know
Recovery fraud operates on the insight that people who have been scammed are still vulnerable. Their contact information, the type of fraud that affected them, and the amount lost are often recorded when they filed a complaint or report, and this data is traded within criminal networks. Alternatively, the original scammers themselves circle back after a few months.
The recovery scammer contacts the victim claiming to represent a law firm, a government agency like the FTC or CFTC, an international recovery organization, or a cybercrime unit. They use official-sounding names and sometimes forge government seals or letterheads. They claim to have identified the original scammer, recovered assets, or obtained a court judgment, and say the victim must pay an upfront fee - for taxes, processing, or administrative costs - to receive their recovered funds.
The CFTC and AARP both warn explicitly: government agencies will never ask you to pay to receive restitution money. Any offer of recovery that requires upfront fees, requests personal banking details, or comes via unsolicited contact is almost certainly a second scam. Research shows the majority of fraud victims are victimized more than once. The practical advice is to ignore all unsolicited recovery offers and to file reports only through official government channels (FTC, FBI IC3) whose websites end in .gov.
Common claims
- A law firm found my money and can get it back for a small feeAlmost certainly a scam - recovery scammers target prior victims
- Legitimate government agencies contact victims to return recovered fundsFalse - government restitution comes by mail, never by phone or email asking for fees
- If they know details of my original scam, they must be legitimateFalse - scammers buy victim lists that include case details