{"id":12617,"date":"2026-09-14T00:09:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T22:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/questions\/what-is-a-recovery-scam-and-how-do-i-recognise-it\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T01:11:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T23:11:33","slug":"what-is-a-recovery-scam-and-how-do-i-recognise-it","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/questions\/what-is-a-recovery-scam-and-how-do-i-recognise-it\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a recovery scam and how do I recognise it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2190<\/span>Back to Questions<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

What is a recovery scam and how do I recognise it?<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n

By R.T. (Tyler) Dijst<\/a>, blockchain investigator at Paucitas<\/p>\n

A recovery scam is fraud aimed at people who have already been defrauded. A party approaches you promising to get your crypto back, against payment up front. Be strict here: anyone promising recovery before anything has been investigated is making an undertaking nobody can keep.<\/div>\n

How to recognise a recovery scam<\/h2>\n

The contact is unsolicited, often shortly after you filed a report or posted on a forum. A specific amount is named as recoverable, sometimes with a percentage and a deadline attached. Payment is requested up front, in crypto, or as a fee for tax, legal costs or a deposit.<\/p>\n

Further signals: a name resembling that of a known firm, an address that does not match the registers, pressure to decide quickly, and a conversation that runs only through a chat app. Once you pay, a second request usually follows.<\/p>\n

What Paucitas does and does not do<\/h2>\n

Paucitas is not a recovery provider. We do not retrieve funds and we do not undertake to. What we do is investigate what is still there to investigate: where your payments went, whether the route ends at an exchange<\/a> or at a mixer<\/a>, and whether there are leads your lawyer can use.<\/p>\n

If money has since gone to a recovery provider as well, we include those payments in the same investigation. They are ordinary transactions and can be followed in the same way.<\/p>\n

What you supply<\/h2>\n

The messages from the party that approached you, the name and address they gave, the payment addresses and transaction hashes of what you paid them, plus the material from the original case.<\/p>\n

How to get started<\/h2>\n

Pay nothing further and keep everything. Get in touch with a short description; in a first conversation you will hear whether an investigation can still achieve anything in your situation and what it costs.<\/p>\n

European supervisors publish background on crypto assets and the rules that apply to them: see ESMA<\/a> and EBA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We do not express a view on whether a particular party is acting in good faith. We investigate the transactions and record what follows from them.<\/p>\n

Further reading<\/strong><\/p>\n