- START A FREE CONSULTATION IF YOU ARE A VICTIM OF A SCAM
Calm down
It’s important to take a deep breath and take a step back before you do anything. A lot of people make rash decisions after losing money, and they end up losing even more.
You might be thinking: “Hold on, can I really get my money back? What if the company is just gone?” Maybe you feel like this is a lost cause. Well, I have good news for you. You probably can get your money back, but it will take some time and effort on your part.
Understand the scam.
Cryptocurrency scams are on the rise. These scams, which emblazon themselves as part of a grand, revolutionary movement, prey upon the unwary and uninformed. Not everyone who participates in cryptocurrency is a victim of a scam, but it’s important to know what to look out for to avoid falling victim to this sort of scheme.
It sounds like an appealing opportunity: The quick rise in value of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has made them attractive investments. But as with any investment or speculative market, there are going to be bad actors who want your money and will do anything they can to get it. While the vast majority of these scammers operate outside the United States (most notably in South Korea), their methods remain consistent: They’ll try to sell you an investment that promises huge returns with little risk; they’ll offer you “guaranteed” returns set at unrealistic levels; they’ll ask you for information about how cryptocurrency works that puts you at risk to either fall for it yourself or share your details with someone who will take advantage of your information; most commonly, though, is that they’ll simply deceive people with false claims about how well their product works. If you see one of these scams pop up on social media or similar platforms like forums and chat rooms, take note—if you’re ever approached by someone claiming they have a way to make money off cryptocurrencies without putting any real work into it or buying them at a price high enough that they can turn around and sell them at a profit before people realize what’s happening, don’t give them any money!
Get as much information about the scam as you can.
The first step to recovering your stolen money is to get as much information as you can about the scam. You’ll want to collect the scammer’s name, phone number, and email.
Gather any emails and chat history between you and the scammer. Save screenshots of their profile so that you can attach them when filing a report with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). Be sure to block the scammer’s number, email, and social media accounts; if they don’t have access to your information, they won’t be able to steal from or harass you again.
Notify your bank and stop payments.
In order to stop the scammers from having access to your money, you will want to:
Notify your bank and stop payments. If you make automatic payments on your accounts, ask the bank to put a block on them so scammers won’t have any more access.
Report it to the police and close affected accounts.
Change passwords and logins if they were compromised in the scam, especially if they were compromised in a way that could leak other personal information like credit card numbers or social security numbers.
Check your credit report for any unauthorized charges or withdrawals that might be attributed to scammers using stolen information such as passwords login credentials – never give these out over email or phone calls!
Consider talking to a recovery expert
You can also consider hiring an expert to help you recover your money. If you lost a lot of money—especially a substantial portion of your life savings—it might be worth it to talk to someone who’s experienced in recovering victims’ funds. However, the cost of recovering your money will likely be high (around 18-25 percent of the total amount recovered). And there’s no guarantee that the experts will successfully recover everything you lost.
