Spotting a recovery scam: eleven things a genuine firm will never do

People who lose money to fraud are targeted again. Sometimes by the same criminals, sometimes by others who bought the details. The second approach is frequently more convincing than the first, because the caller already knows what happened to you, how much you lost and who took it.

This is the guide we most want people to read, and the one we would rather you shared than used.

Eleven things a genuine firm will never do

1. Contact you first

No legitimate claims company cold-calls fraud victims. Not by phone, text, email, messaging app or social media. If you did not approach them, walk away. This one rule catches the great majority of recovery scams.

2. Ask for money upfront

No fee before your claim succeeds. Not an administration fee, not a court fee, not a release fee, not a tax payment to free your funds. Any of these is conclusive.

3. Guarantee a result

Nobody can guarantee the outcome of a claim, because nobody controls the decision. A guarantee is a sales technique, and in this sector it is usually a fraud.

4. Ask for a passcode, PIN or password

Never, for any reason, to anyone. Not your bank, not the police, not us. A one-time passcode is the thing standing between a criminal and your account.

5. Ask to access your device

Remote access software has no legitimate role in a claims process. If someone asks you to install anything at all, end the call.

6. Ask you to move money to a safe account

There is no such thing. This is the most common bank impersonation script in the country, and your bank will never ask you to do it.

7. Pressure you to decide immediately

Urgency is manufactured to stop you checking. A genuine deadline is a reason to give you the facts, not a reason to prevent you verifying them.

8. Refuse to give a firm reference number

Regulated firms have one and will give it without hesitation. Then you check it, as below.

9. Tell you not to speak to your bank

Any instruction to keep the process secret, or to mislead your bank about what a payment is for, is the clearest sign there is.

10. Claim to be recovering cryptocurrency

Crypto recovery services are almost universally fraudulent. Once cryptocurrency has moved to a criminal's wallet it is not realistically recoverable by a private company, whatever is claimed about blockchain analysis. We do not offer this and we would not.

11. Claim to be an official body helping you claim

Regulators, ombudsman services and police forces do not telephone people offering to recover money for a fee. Anyone claiming otherwise is impersonating them.

How to check a firm properly

Ask for the firm name and reference number, then hang up. Do not use any number, link or email address they gave you.

Open a browser and type the Financial Services Register address in yourself. Search the reference number and check that firm name, address and permissions all match what you were told. Then contact the firm using the number on the register.

That habit. typing the address yourself and using the number on the register. defeats almost every impersonation attempt, because the whole scam depends on you using their contact details.

If someone has already contacted you

1. Stop responding. You owe them nothing, including politeness.
2. Do not send money, however small, and whatever it is called.
3. Report it to Action Fraud, or to Police Scotland on 101 if you are in Scotland.
4. Tell your bank, particularly if you shared any details at all.
5. If you installed anything on your device, disconnect it and have it checked before using it for banking.

If you have already paid one

You have not been foolish. These operations are professional, well-resourced and designed by people who do this full time. Being deceived by a professional deception is not a character flaw.

The money you paid to the recovery scam is itself potentially recoverable. as an APP fraud reimbursement claim if you transferred it, or by chargeback if you paid by card. Report it and claim. That claim is free to make yourself.

Our own position

We never make unsolicited contact of any kind. We do not buy leads, we do not work with introducers who cold-call, and we do not offer cryptocurrency recovery.

If you are speaking to someone who says they are us and you did not contact us first, it is not us. Hang up and check the register.