If a romance or investment scam took your money
If you found this page, something happened that you did not deserve. A person who seemed genuine and trustworthy, sometimes over weeks or months, persuaded you to send money to what turned out to be a fraud. Or a relationship that felt real was a carefully constructed lie, built specifically to take your savings. The financial loss is real. The grief is real. And the shame many victims feel is real, even though none of this is your fault.
These operations are sometimes called pig butchering. They are not opportunistic crimes. They are run by organised criminal networks, operating at scale, with teams of people whose job is to build convincing personas and manufacture trust over time. The same operation has done this to thousands of people across the world. You were targeted because you are a human being capable of trust, not because you lacked judgement.
This page will not tell you what you want to hear. It will tell you what is true and what you can actually do.
If your situation is not fraud but an honest mistake, such as accidentally sending cryptocurrency to the wrong address, see our guide on wrong address situations instead. That guide covers the narrow technical exceptions where recovery is genuinely possible and the free steps to try first.
The honest truth about getting your money back
The money that left your wallet through a confirmed blockchain transaction is gone. This is not a policy that could be overridden by a specialist, a lawyer, or a government agency. Blockchain transactions are final by design: once confirmed, no company, no government, and no technical service can reverse them or instruct the network to return funds. The same architecture that makes cryptocurrency work at all is what makes confirmed transfers permanent.
We cannot recover those funds. Neither can anyone else who offers to do so. If someone contacts you claiming they can retrieve those specific funds, that person is running a second fraud aimed at someone already hurt by the first. Recovery scammers who target romance and investment scam victims are a well documented, systematic industry. They are not rare exceptions: they specifically seek out people in your situation.
What blockchain investigation is, and what it is not
There is a legitimate service called blockchain investigation. It is entirely separate from fund recovery and does something different.
An investigation traces where your funds went: which wallets received them, how the money moved, whether it reached an exchange. The output is a documented report containing wallet addresses, transaction IDs, and a clear record of the fund flow. That report is a tool you can submit to law enforcement, to an exchange's compliance team, or to a lawyer building a case.
An investigation does not return your money. It documents the theft. In some situations, law enforcement can act on such documentation to freeze exchange accounts before funds move further; this window is most useful when you act quickly. In most cases, by the time victims seek help, the funds have already moved past any reachable point.
If you want that kind of investigation, we can provide it. It is a fixed fee starting at $800, depending on the complexity of the trace, for a defined deliverable: the documented report. We charge nothing as a percentage of any recovery, because we do not offer recovery. We never promise that funds will return.
If someone offers to recover your money: stop before you pay anything.
Real help does not arrive as an unsolicited direct message, a Telegram contact, a WhatsApp message, or a reply to something you posted online about your situation. No legitimate specialist monitors social media for fraud victims and reaches out to offer assistance. If someone found you, they are targeting you.
Recovery scammers specifically seek out victims of romance and investment fraud. They know these people are in distress and have already proven willing to send money in hope of a return. Their methods follow the same pattern as the original scam: build urgency, request a small initial fee, manufacture complications, request more.
There is no withdrawal tax. There is no release fee. There is no government bond that must be paid to unlock your funds. Any payment framed this way is another theft. Do not pay it, and do not engage further with anyone making such a request.
What to do right now
If you have only just realised what happened, or if it is still unfolding, these steps matter most.
Stop all contact and all payments immediately
Do not send anything further. Do not respond to the scammer's messages, even to confront them or demand an explanation. Further contact gives them more opportunities to manipulate and does not lead to the return of funds. If they are still asking for payments to release or unlock your money, that is more fraud: stop completely.
Preserve all evidence before you lose access to it
Take screenshots of all conversations, profiles, wallet addresses, transaction confirmations, and any websites or platforms involved. Save the transaction ID from every cryptocurrency transfer. Export chat logs if the platform allows it. Copy email addresses, usernames, and phone numbers. Do this now, before accounts are deleted or you are blocked. This evidence is what makes both investigation and law enforcement reporting possible.
Report to the relevant authorities
In the United States, file a report with the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov and with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov. Include all transaction IDs, wallet addresses, and any identifying details about the person or platform involved.
Also report to your local police to obtain a formal report number. A police report is often required by banks, exchanges, and insurance providers as part of any follow-up process.
If the funds passed through a cryptocurrency exchange, contact that exchange immediately. Provide the transaction IDs and destination wallet addresses. Exchanges can sometimes flag or freeze accounts, but this possibility closes quickly once funds move further along.
If you are outside the United States, contact your national cybercrime or fraud authority. In the United Kingdom, report to Action Fraud. In Australia, report to the Australian Cyber Security Centre and Scamwatch. Most countries have an equivalent agency: searching for your country's name alongside "cybercrime report" will find the right body.
Contact your bank or payment provider
If any part of the fraud involved bank transfers, credit cards, or fiat payment services, contact those institutions immediately. Cryptocurrency transfers cannot be reversed, but some fiat payments can be, particularly if you act quickly before the funds are withdrawn at the other end.
You are not alone
The emotional weight of this kind of fraud is not minor and should not be minimised. Romance scams involve a constructed relationship: the grief people feel is real grief, for a person who never existed as they appeared. Investment scams can take savings built over years or decades. The shame many victims report, a sense that they should have recognised what was happening, is one of the most common reactions, and it is also one of the most unfair.
Organised fraud operations employ people specifically to study how trust works and how to build it. They test approaches, refine techniques, and invest weeks establishing a relationship before requesting anything. Falling for this is not evidence of poor judgement: it is evidence that the operation did exactly what it was designed to do.
Talking to someone helps. Trusted people in your life, a counsellor, or a support community can offer something that no practical guide can. Organisations such as the Global Anti-Scam Organisation maintain peer communities where people who have experienced the same thing can connect and support one another. Finding others who understand from the inside often matters as much as any practical advice.
Optional: request a blockchain tracing investigation
This is an investigation, not a recovery service. We cannot get your money back, and neither can anyone else. What a trace produces is a documented report showing where your funds moved on the blockchain: which wallets received them, how they were transferred onward, and whether they reached a cryptocurrency exchange. You can give that report to law enforcement, to an exchange's compliance team, or to a lawyer building a case.
It is a fixed fee service starting at $800, depending on the complexity of the trace, with a defined deliverable: the report. We never charge a percentage of funds and we never promise that any money will return.
You do not need to pay us to file a report with the IC3, the FTC, or your local police. Those reports are free, and you should file them regardless of whether you use any paid service. For many people, filing those free reports is the most useful step available.
A trace may help support an active law enforcement case or an exchange account freeze, particularly when you act while the investigation is still open. In many situations, however, the funds have moved far beyond any reachable point and the report serves primarily as documentation rather than a path to return. We will tell you honestly which applies to your situation before you decide to proceed.