Do not connect your wallet to an unsolicited crypto recovery offer. Recovery pitches that promise results, demand an advance fee, or ask for your recovery phrase, private key, account details, or a rushed signature are serious warning signs. A confirmed blockchain transaction cannot simply be reversed, and a private recovery company cannot issue a seizure order. Protect any assets that remain, preserve evidence, and report the incident through channels you find independently.
Check these warning signs before you connect
Use this screen before opening a link, connecting a wallet, or replying. An unsolicited recovery pitch is especially risky because scammers target people who have already lost money through social-media posts, comments, messaging apps, and search results. They may pose as investigators, lawyers, government agencies, exchanges, or wallet support.
- They contacted you first. Treat an unexpected message, call, email, or comment offering to recover stolen crypto as suspicious. Do not use its link or phone number; find the claimed organization’s official contact details yourself.
- They guarantee recovery or claim special authority. A promise to trace and return funds, access a supposed case, or act with law-enforcement power is not proof. The FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) warned on August 11, 2023: “Private sector recovery companies cannot issue seizure orders to recover cryptocurrency.”
- They want money before recovery. Do not pay an advance, processing, tax, or release fee to get your funds back. Law enforcement does not charge victims a fee to investigate.
- They request secrets or access. Stop if they ask for your recovery phrase, private key, wallet or exchange password, bank details, remote access to your computer, or a hurried transaction signature. Ethereum.org’s security guide says: “Never, for any reason, share your recovery phrase or private keys!”
- You cannot independently verify the contact. If someone claims to represent the FBI, an exchange, or a wallet provider, locate that organization’s official contact channel separately. The FBI advises people to confirm claimed FBI affiliation with a local field office.
These are practical stop signs, not a way to certify a stranger as legitimate. A professional-looking website, a transaction explorer link, or knowledge of your case does not establish that the person can recover funds or has authority to freeze them.
What a wallet connection does—and does not—prove
A website may request a wallet connection to view blockchain data or ask you to approve an action. Connecting does not authenticate the site or prove that its operator is trustworthy. Never enter your recovery phrase into a website, including one presented as a wallet-verification or recovery step.
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Before signing anything, read the wallet’s exact prompt. A signature or transaction can authorize an action, including token spending; do not approve an unlimited token allowance unless you understand why it is needed and trust the recipient. If the request is hurried, unclear, or unrelated to what you expected, reject it and close the site.
Tracing can document where funds moved or help support a report, but it does not reverse a confirmed transfer. Ethereum.org’s “Scam help & reporting” guidance, last updated June 6, 2026, states: “No one can reverse blockchain transactions.”
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If you already connected or approved a transaction
If you only connected the wallet
Disconnect the site in your wallet. A connection by itself is not the same as granting token-spending permission, but review what you actually approved rather than assuming no authorization was given. Do not follow further instructions from the site.
If you approved token spending
Disconnecting does not cancel an allowance. Ethereum.org explains that permissions can remain active after a wallet is disconnected and may remain usable for years. Check token allowances on the relevant network and revoke suspicious permissions using a reputable tool listed in ethereum.org’s approval-revocation guide. Revocation is a separate on-chain transaction, requires a network fee, and applies only to the network you check. Verify the network and the allowance or contract, and inspect the revocation transaction before signing.
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If you shared a recovery phrase or private key
Assume that wallet is compromised. If you can do so safely, move remaining assets to a new secure wallet that the person cannot access; do not import or type the old phrase into a recovery website. Changing a password or disconnecting the site does not make a disclosed private key secret again.
Preserve evidence and report the incident
Save the information while it is available. Keep transaction hashes, wallet addresses, the asset and amount involved, dates and times, screenshots, messages, usernames, payment records, and details of how the person first contacted you. Ethereum.org notes that documentation can assist investigations and help warn other users.
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- In the United States, report suspected cryptocurrency investment fraud to FBI IC3 or contact a local FBI field office. Include transaction addresses and hashes, asset type and amount, dates and times, contact details or usernames, and relevant communications. Use the FBI’s field-office directory if you need to verify a claimed FBI representative.
- Contact an exchange only through a channel you find on its official website. An exchange may sometimes freeze an account flagged for fraud through its internal procedures or legal process. That possibility is not a promise that funds will be frozen or returned.
- Report to local law enforcement where applicable. Keep the report details with your evidence and share them with an exchange if its official process requests them.
The scale of reported fraud is substantial but does not predict whether an individual case will recover funds: IC3 reported more than $2.5 billion in cryptocurrency investment-fraud losses in 2022 in its 2023 alert, while a separate 2024 IC3 alert said victims further exploited by fictitious law firms reported more than $9.9 million in losses between February 2023 and February 2024. Those figures cover different populations and periods.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What recovery can realistically mean
There is no guaranteed private-sector route to recover stolen cryptocurrency. On Ethereum, confirmed transactions are final. Reporting can help document the movement of funds and support an investigation; an exchange may be able to freeze an account under its own procedures or legal process, but that is not the same as reversing the original transaction or guaranteeing a return.
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Be wary of anyone who says a fee, a wallet connection, or a special tracing method will reverse a confirmed transfer. Follow official reporting and exchange procedures instead of giving a second party control of your wallet or money.
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