Immediately after a loss, users urgently seek law-enforcement involvement, chain analysis or professional help. Secondary scammers exploit that urgency. They present a plausible-looking destination and claim that a release fee, deposit, tax or hacking fee will return the assets.
High-risk signals
- A guarantee of recovery or freezing before the path has been verified.
- A request to send fees or verification funds to a personal wallet.
- A request for a seed phrase, private key, remote access or screen sharing.
- Impersonation of an exchange, authority, law firm or international organization that cannot be verified through official channels.
- A claim of an internal channel or the ability to hack the recipient wallet.
- Artificial urgency that prevents independent checking.
What a professional service can provide
A compliant investigation can verify the loss transaction, organize the fund path, classify address roles, document entity-label sources, identify potential evidence-request points and state limitations. Public chain data alone cannot guarantee that an account will be restricted, an owner identified or assets recovered.
Checks before paying for assistance
- Verify the domain, public contact details and service agreement.
- Confirm whether the deliverable is a report, data organization or analyst support.
- Require written scope, fee, term and refund conditions.
- Never provide wallet-control credentials.
- For reporting, restriction or cross-border requests, confirm that the authorized party uses the applicable process.
A service provider cannot privately reverse a blockchain transaction. The useful work is to establish the facts and path, prevent further loss and prepare reviewable material for reporting, platform review or professional advice.
Source: ethereum.org Scam Help & Reporting. Reviewed 2026-08-03.