The number of scams related to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is increasing at a rapid pace. For instance, according to FTC and some other platform, traders reported the lost amounts as follows: $12M in 2018, $33M in 2019, $130M in 2020, $680M in 2021 and $1B in 2022.
You can see the figure is increasing year over year.
Unfortunately, quite a few of them get recover their stolen funds.
It’s not because it’s hard to recover crypto, but most of them never take action against scammers with full effort.
Yes, it’s true that it’s hard to get stolen bitcoins back, but not impossible; this happens in almost all crypto scams.
Hundreds of individuals have lost big money through various crypto cons like phishing, hackers’’ attacks, ethereum/USDT mining pool, BNB investment scam, eth scams and rug pulls.
The chances of crypto recovering depend on several factors.
For instance, if you have information on hand and you have reached the right person on time, it could dramatically boost your chances of getting back your stolen coins.
Apart from that, getting legal help can also be a wise move if the authorities have first hand knowledge of scams as well as the crypto market.
In other instances, it appears that the government has even repaid some recovered money back to the affected parties.
More and more people lose massive amounts of money to online cryptocurrency scams each month. Within one year, victims in the United States lost over $4 billion to sophisticated criminal groups and digital robbers.
The fake Forex trading activity takes place in high tech international or foreign based criminal networks that set up convincing Forex terminals but rig them to display pretend trading profits while robbing consumers of their money illicitly.
One cannot really tell if it is a genuine or fake crypto platform since they all look so real.
If you have lost crypto, you can increase chances of recovery by contacting a crypto recovery expert right here.
Let’s look at the chances and possibilities of crypto recovery.
How to recognize cryptocurrency fraud:
In the case of crypto scams, there are a few kinds you have to be on the lookout for. There are many types commonly seen, such as the well-known Ponzi scheme, which relies on a constant influx of new cash to repay prior recipients (investors).
ICO fraud is a fake initial coin offering where hackers fabricate bogus projects and get money from innocent crypto investors. Another technique used by scammers is phishing attacks: which lure victims into giving away their private keys via fraudulent emails or websites.
Scammers use multiple approaches to deceive people. Fake crypto projects and exchange websites or profiles are also frequent targets for scammers. They might additionally send unsolicited messages and e-mails with great offers and opportunities for investment.
Scammers also employ other methods, like fear tactics; they might be reporting misinformation and urgency, so they could lure people to make quick decisions.
In the past few years, many high-profile cryptocurrency scams have surfaced. Perhaps the most famous example is the BitConnect scam, in which an investment scheme that promised incredible returns through their lending program was exposed as a Ponzi and ultimately collapsed, leaving many investors with heavy losses.
For instance, the PlusToken fraud turned out to be one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in the cryptospace and robbed countless investors of millions or even billions of dollars.
Challenges in crypto scam recovery:
Bitcoin has some complexities in recovering from blockchain transactions due to its inherent features. The pseudonymity and anonymity of these transactions make it hard to trace where the money is coming from and catch criminals.
Additionally, it further creates a problem in recovery as there are jurisdictional issues coupled with the distributional structure of blockchain. Furthermore, recovering the stolen bitcoin involves a myriad of technical challenges, including finding, detecting, and tracing lost cryptocurrencies. Nonetheless, the following avenues will be helpful in getting back stolen BTCs.
Chances of Recovery: Various Factors
Police also have the responsibility of ensuring compliance with lawful restrictions and
guidelines; investigating scams; and working in partnership with other law enforcement and government agencies across the globe to track down fraudsters and recover stolen money.
Laws like these can stop fraud as well – they provide a standard for crypto exchanges and projects, which increase transparency and help bring wrongdoers into line.
Technology solutions like blockchain analysis tools are useful to track your stolen crypto. These tools look at all the transactions occurring on a blockchain, extract relevant data about those transactions, look for repeated patterns of behavior, and then track that fund to its destination.
It works well for most cases but faces issues with mixer services and privacy-coin transactions that can confuse transaction logs and make it hard to trace back activities. Nonetheless, advances in technology have been made to enhance the efficiency of these tools.
Furthermore, trading platforms and exchanges have a duty to implement security measures to protect user funds and also work with regulators and law-enforcement bodies to investigate cybercrime activities.
The difficulty of blockchain anonymity and pseudonymity, as well as other factors like ignorance, make it less likely that authorities will be able to retrieve cryptocurrency. Because they have never used this technology, these authorities have no knowledge of cryptocurrency fraud or the market.
Some techniques and solutions:
Here are some techniques to recover crypto.
1. Law enforcement route:
Reporting crypto scams to law enforcement is generally regarded as the sole option to have any possibility of recovering stolen funds and tracking down scoundrels. However, the majority of these wallets and private platforms do not fall within the reach of the US police force for the most part.
The FBI’s cybercrime complaint form, known as iC3, is no longer attractive to many victims seeking legal enforcement options. Most of the time, local authorities are incapable of investigating transnational criminals and tracking down crypto coins on private, anonymous offshore wallets, even when they have the right instruments and education.
However, investigators should continue to pursue their cases through the FBI and Department of Justice crypto task forces, along with other federal agency channels. However, persuading the right authorities to first agree and later investigate a cryptocurrency case remains a huge task.
This dramatically increased the number of scams and consequently increased the number of references. This creates a huge waiting list of complaints that will overwhelm even the federal authorities.
There are, of course, success stories where law enforcement has done a terrific job of finding stolen cryptocurrency or fraudsters, but there was assistance for individuals who lost millions or even trillions of bitcoins. They might not be interested in thousands or even hundreds of bitcoins.
Another minimum possibility is related to the amount of time they take. I get it; recovering crypto is not everyone’s cup of tea; it requires immense time and energy, so would you wait at least ten years to recover your crypto?
You might have to wait for some time if you plan to rely on the authorities.
2. Tracing funds:
Another possibility is private investigations or chasing these cases privately. In certain instances, teams with the right amount of forensic investigative/tracing capabilities, along with an asset recovery lawyer well versed in cryptocurrency investigation laws, may aid in unearthing missing coins and bad actors identities.
Blockchain records valuable investigative information and can track down the scammer’s money with possible hope for recovery.
Transactions with financial institutions are usually public except for a few, but here all transactions are publicly recorded in the blockchain for those who know how to search. Each transfer can be tracked, with important information about the transfer written down in the digital ledger.
This can include such information as the address of a pocket (wallet) where cryptocurrency is forwarded. Through traceability, any trace of a transaction can be found, and this could show how a thief is currently holding stolen funds.
Other useful information is about the recipient’s wallet’s movement or activities with funds.
Tokens are a commodity in the process of recovery.
Private wallet platforms hold tokens, or coins, that can hardly be seized. Nevertheless, circumstances might arise and offer something positive. To convert the crypto money back to fiat currency, a crook, for now, has to operate via a legal and centralized cryptocurrency exchange.
An account holder is required to provide an ID along with KYC details, which would include a valid driving license or passport.
Exchanges heighten their claims even more. In some cases, criminals transfer stolen coins to accounts at exchanges and hold them there before converting back to cryptocurrencies.
3. Contact legitimate recovery services:
On top of all the above problems, there exist specialized recovery services such as Online Investment Scams (OIS), which has shown excellent success in recovering crypto.
You can reach out to their crypto scam recovery services anytime to contact crypto recovery experts. They are good at Bitcoin scam recovery as well as all other cryptocurrencies recoveries.
Authorities have a much lower chance of recovering and even more time to do so. In our case, however, it’s different. With our experience and capabilities, we can guide you through and simplify the challenges associated with the process. So, don’t lose hope! Get in touch with our recovery services and share everything needed for higher chances of regaining your coins.