I was hesitant to post this for a few reasons,
I don’t want the general public falling for more recovery scams as I’m going to share a working method which will likely be copied or used. Secondly there are a large majority of redditors which genuinely believe once funds are moved from your wallet it’s a wrap, fortunately this isn’t the case for every situation.
Step 1 – Gather as much information as you can, links, transactions ID’s, addresses, amounts etc.
Step 2 – Follow the blockchain, essentially digital tracing to see if the scammer’s wallets are linked to any exchanges (coinbase, binance, crypto.com etc) currently using a tool similar to bubblemaps.
Step 3 – Create a case locally (your local police, you may need it later) and search up where to report crypto scams depending on where you live.
For example if you’re in the US, you’ll create a ic3 form (this also applies if your scammer is in the US, doesn’t hurt to file.
Step 4 – depending on where you filed, and what exchange was previously used, a law enforcement request gets filed either via email or by a dedicated law enforcement request page like Binance has – https://www.binance.com/en/support/law-enforcement
Step 5 – if the funds are somehow on the exchange, accounts will be frozen, but likely it’s being held elsewhere, in that case Step 4 will have provided the user’s identity, from this point you can attempt to contact the user themselves, their family and friends etc but it’s preferred allowing the law enforcement agency you’re dealing with to make the next move in this case.
Step 6 – based on previous experience how funds are handled after depends on the agency, along with the time frame.
Ensure you have a full trail to claim those funds are yours, hence Step 1 is as important as the rest, don’t leave out any details that may be important.
This is not the go ahead for you to trust everyone online, hell I could be one too.
There are additional tools that I prefer not mentioning as they’ll be used to say “hey, I use x y z, trust”
Be safe, and if you’ve been hurt my scam or malicious site, whatever the case may be.
Don’t beat yourself up too much, they will get what’s coming to em 😉
