The first 48 hours after a crypto scam

If you have just realised you were scammed, the next two days matter more than the next two months. Not because there is a button that reverses a blockchain transaction — there isn't — but because almost everything that can help you is time-sensitive: funds sitting at a regulated exchange before they are moved on, evidence still visible in an app before your account is deleted, a bank transfer that has not yet settled.

Work through this in order. It should take you about an hour.

1. Cut contact, but do not delete anything

Stop replying. Do not warn them, argue, or try to get an admission — it only tells them to close the account and wipe the evidence. But do not block or delete the conversation either, and do not uninstall the app. Screenshot it all first.

This matters more than people expect. Chat histories on messaging apps, the fake trading dashboard, the customer-support thread — these often vanish within days of the operators realising the mark has caught on.

2. Capture the evidence while it exists

Collect, in this order of importance:

• Transaction hashes and wallet addresses — every address you sent to, and the transaction IDs from your own wallet or exchange history. This is the single most useful thing an investigator can work with.
• Exchange records — download the full transaction and withdrawal history from any exchange you used, as a CSV if offered.
• Bank and card records — statements showing the outbound transfers, including wire confirmations and reference numbers.
• The full conversation — screenshots including usernames, phone numbers, profile photos and timestamps. Capture the profile page, not just the chat.
• The platform itself — the URL, screenshots of your "balance", any app store listing, and any documents they sent you (contracts, certificates, licences — usually forged, and useful evidence precisely because they are).
• A written timeline — dates, amounts, and what you were told at each step, written while it is fresh.

Store copies somewhere outside the platform: your own computer, plus a cloud folder or an email to yourself.

3. Call your bank or exchange — today

If any part of the money moved by wire, card, or bank transfer in the last few days, call your bank immediately and ask about a recall or chargeback. Recalls sometimes work inside a very short window and almost never work later.

If funds are still sitting at a US-regulated exchange, contact that exchange's support and report the destination address as fraud-related. Exchanges can and sometimes do freeze accounts, but only if the funds are still there and only when asked quickly.

4. Report it officially

Reporting is not a formality and it is not the same as filing a police report that goes nowhere. Law enforcement seizures in crypto fraud cases are built from clusters of individual reports containing wallet addresses. If you are not in the file, you are not in the distribution when funds are recovered.

• FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) — the primary federal channel. Include every wallet address and transaction hash.
• FTC ReportFraud — feeds the consumer-protection side and the FTC's enforcement data.
• CFTC complaint form — relevant where a fake trading or futures platform was involved.
• Your state attorney general's consumer protection office, and a report with your local police — a police report number is often required by banks and insurers.

5. Secure everything the scammer touched

If you installed anything they sent you, downloaded a "wallet" app, or granted any browser wallet permission, assume it is compromised.

• Move any remaining crypto to a brand-new wallet with a newly generated seed phrase.
• Revoke token approvals for the affected address using a reputable revocation tool before you assume it is safe.
• Change passwords on email and exchange accounts, and turn on app-based two-factor authentication.
• Run a malware scan if you installed any software or remote-access tool at their request.

6. Then, and only then, think about a lawyer

A lawyer is worth talking to when there is a solvent, identifiable party to pursue: a regulated exchange that mishandled your account, a business partner with assets, a platform with a US corporate presence. Where the counterparty is an anonymous overseas crew, litigation usually cannot reach them, and paying hourly fees to find that out is a second loss on top of the first.

Our free assessment will tell you which of those situations you are in, and what to ask if the answer is yes.