Recovery scams targeting fraud victims
Recovery scams target people who have already lost money to a previous scam, falsely promising to recover the stolen funds for an upfront fee, and consumer protection agencies identify this as a distinct and growing secondary fraud that re-victimizes people already harmed by an initial scam.
What we know
Investment and asset recovery scams specifically target individuals who have already been victims of a prior scam, most commonly a fraudulent cryptocurrency or investment scheme, a romance scam, or another form of financial fraud. The scammer, posing as a recovery specialist, law firm, government investigator, or cybersecurity expert, contacts the previous victim claiming they can recover the lost funds, often citing supposed insider knowledge, a class action settlement, or connections to law enforcement or regulatory agencies, and requests an upfront fee to begin the recovery process.
The Federal Trade Commission and the North American Securities Administrators Association have both issued specific warnings about this scam pattern, noting that scammers frequently obtain victim contact lists from data associated with the original scam, meaning people who have fallen for one scam are specifically targeted again, sometimes within weeks of the original fraud, precisely because they have demonstrated a willingness to send money and are emotionally motivated to recover their losses. This targeting pattern has led consumer protection researchers to describe repeat victimization through recovery scams as a well documented and predictable secondary wave of fraud following any successful scam.
Recovery scammers often use official-sounding names invoking government agencies, and may present fabricated documents, fake law firm letterhead, or impersonate real regulatory bodies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK, to appear legitimate. Some versions of the scam ask the victim to pay recovery fees in cryptocurrency or via wire transfer, mirroring the same difficult-to-trace payment methods used in the original scam, while others request payment of supposed taxes or legal fees required before recovered funds can allegedly be released, a request that legitimate law enforcement recovery processes do not make.
Genuine fund recovery, when it is possible at all, typically occurs through actual law enforcement investigations, financial institution fraud departments, or legitimate class action litigation, none of which require the victim to pay an upfront fee to a third party contacting them unsolicited. The FBI and FTC both note that legitimate government agencies do not charge victims a fee to return recovered funds from a fraud investigation, and that any recovery service demanding upfront payment before performing any verifiable work is very likely fraudulent itself.
Consumer protection guidance recommends that victims of an original scam report the crime to the FTC, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, and their financial institution promptly, since acting quickly sometimes allows a bank or payment processor to reverse or freeze a fraudulent transaction, and treat any unsolicited follow-up contact offering fund recovery for a fee with serious skepticism, verifying independently through official channels such as a bank's known fraud department or a state securities regulator rather than trusting contact information provided by the person offering to help.
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