Fake Crypto Recovery Services: How to Avoid Being Scammed Twice
Fake crypto recovery services are the second wave of a scam: they target people who just lost money and promise to get it back for a fee. The fee is the new theft. You avoid being scammed twice with one rule — nobody who contacts you first, or asks you to pay up front, is going to recover your crypto.
How do they find you?
You tell them, without meaning to. Posting "my MetaMask got drained, help" on X or Reddit brings replies within minutes from accounts praising a "hacker who helped me". Some buy lists of victims from the original scammers — the same people, running a second act. Others copy the look of the FBI, a law firm or a real exchange such as Coinbase and send an official-looking letter saying your funds were "located".
The scripts they use
It works like a car mechanic who keeps finding one more broken part. First comes a small "assessment fee". Then a "wallet unlock fee", a "tax to release the funds", or a "gas deposit" in Ethereum. Each payment is always the last one. Sometimes they show a fake dashboard with your balance "recovered" and waiting — you just need to pay to withdraw it. Some ask for your seed phrase to "verify ownership", which hands them anything left in the wallet.
How to protect yourself
- Do not reply to anyone who reached out after you posted about your loss.
- Never pay a fee to receive money. Real agencies do not charge victims.
- Never share your seed phrase or install remote-access apps like AnyDesk.
- Check any "official" contact by finding the agency's number yourself, not the one in the message.
- Tell one trusted person before you send any money — scammers rely on you acting alone and fast.
If you have already paid a recovery service, stop now and add them to your report — reporting crypto fraud to the FBI takes one form, and you can list both scams in it. For a longer list of red flags, see are crypto recovery services a scam.