Can anyone recover crypto you lost to a scam?

Almost never, and anyone who contacts you offering to is running the second scam. The FTC’s rule is short enough to memorize: never pay upfront for a refund or help with a refund.

Last verified 2026-09-21 · 1 primary source

What it actually is

After money is lost to a fraud, a second approach arrives — a message, a comment under a post about the first loss, a call. The sender says they trace blockchain transactions, or that they work with an exchange, a law firm, a consumer group, or a government agency, and that they can get the money back for a fee, a retainer, a processing charge, or a tax. Some produce a dashboard showing the "recovered" balance, which is why the second fee feels like the last one.

The catch

They already know you lost money, which is the tell. That information usually came from the first scam — lists of people who paid are sold and reused precisely because someone who has lost money once is easier to approach than someone who has not. Nothing gets recovered; the fee is the product. Once a transaction has settled on a public chain there is no operator to reverse it, and a genuine seizure runs through law enforcement and a court, which does not involve you wiring anything to anyone.

The free way

Report it — to ReportFraud.ftc.gov, to your local police for the report number, and to the exchange if one was involved. All free, all slow, and all the actual route. If any money does come back it comes back through that process, and no agency charges you to receive it. Then treat every unsolicited offer to help as part of the same event: put the number in the block list and tell one other person what happened, because the second approach works largely on embarrassment about the first.

How to spot it next time

• Any fee, deposit, retainer or tax paid before money comes back.
• Contact you did not initiate, especially soon after the loss.
• Payment by gift card, cryptocurrency, wire transfer or a payment app.
• Someone claiming to be from a government agency and asking for money or personal details.
• A dashboard showing your recovered balance that needs one more fee to release.
• Urgency — a window that closes, a case that expires.

Where this comes from

Drafted with AI. Verified by humans against primary sources. Reviewed by a licensed professional where noted. Last verified 2026-09-21.

Every claim above, with the exact words of the agency that made it. If a paraphrase here does not match the quote, trust the quote and tell us.

1. Never pay in advance to get money back.

   “Never pay upfront for a refund or help with a refund.”consumer.ftc.gov

2. The payment method alone identifies the scam.

   “Only scammers will insist that you pay only with cash, gift cards, cryptocurrency, wire transfers through companies like Western Union or MoneyGram, or a payment app.”consumer.ftc.gov

3. Someone claiming to be a government agency and asking for payment is a scammer.

   “Did someone say they’re from a government agency like the Federal Trade Commission, a nonprofit group, or some other organization, and need payment or your personal information? That’s a scammer.”consumer.ftc.gov

4. No real agency charges you to help you get a refund.

   “Government agencies and legitimate organizations will never ask for money to help you get a refund.”consumer.ftc.gov

This page describes a pattern, not any particular company or person. Patterns outlive the people running them, which is why it is written this way.