If you have just discovered a suspected investment scam
Seven things, in order of urgency. The first few hours matter for one reason above all others: records disappear and accounts close.
Stop before sending any further funds
Particularly a payment demanded to release a withdrawal — a tax, a clearance fee, an insurance charge, a conversion cost, an account upgrade. There is no such payment that completes the process; there is only the next one. This applies equally to anyone who has since contacted you offering to recover what was lost.
Preserve everything, before it disappears
Export chat histories rather than screenshotting them. Save account statements, transaction records and screenshots of the platform showing your balance and any withdrawal request. Note the exact website addresses. Save the pages while the site is still online. Do not delete anything, including material you find embarrassing.
The full preservation listContact your bank or payment provider promptly
Where a transfer is recent, timing is genuinely material — some payments can be recalled or frozen if the receiving institution is notified quickly enough, and card payments may be open to a chargeback within a limited window. Tell them plainly that you believe you have been defrauded, and ask them to record it as such.
Secure anything that was exposed
Remove any remote-access software you were asked to install. Change passwords on email and banking from a device that was not used for the remote session, and enable two-factor authentication. If a cryptocurrency wallet was connected to a site, revoke outstanding token approvals and move remaining assets to a new wallet. Do not enter a seed phrase anywhere in the course of doing this.
Be careful about who contacts you next
Expect an approach. People who have lost money are contacted again, often within weeks, by someone presenting as a lawyer, investigator, regulator or recovery specialist who knows about the loss. That knowledge is not proof of legitimacy — it is the strongest indication that your details have been passed on.
How recovery scams workTake legal advice before any consequential step
Before you confront anyone, post publicly, sign anything, accept a settlement, or pay a professional. Early advice is cheap or free; unwinding a step taken in the first week rarely is. Deadlines can also run from earlier than people expect.
Consider reporting it
Reporting to the police, to the financial regulator in your country and to any relevant national fraud reporting service is worth doing, and it can matter independently of any civil claim. It creates a record, it may connect your matter to others, and some banks and schemes require a report before they will consider reimbursement. It is not usually a route to getting money back on its own.
Two things not to do
Do not confront the people involved. It changes nothing and it very frequently causes websites, accounts and conversations to be deleted within hours — taking the evidence with them.
Do not send money to recover money. Not to the platform, and not to anyone who approached you afterwards. This is the single most common way a first loss becomes a second one.
You are allowed to ask before you decide anything
A first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. If what you need is simply someone to tell you whether the message you have just received is genuine, that is a reasonable use of it and a common one.
Please do not send passwords, private keys, seed phrases or authentication codes — not to this firm and not to anyone else.