Cryptocurrency realm is swarming with scammers and you should be well aware of it. Scammers usually pretend to be legitimate services or projects to lure unsuspecting crypto owners only to empty their wallets.
Cloud mining services became pretty notorious because of how often they are not transparent and pay investors well below the estimated profit.
This article, however, is dedicated to a different type of services which became dominated by scam operations. We are speaking about crypto recovery services. Some of them are legitimate platforms but it seems that most of these services are fraudulent.
This article provides a definition of the crypto recovery platforms, explains how these platforms work, shows how some of them steal users’ money, and how to avoid being scammed.
What Is Crypto Recovery?
The genuine cryptocurrency recovery services are the platform that assist people in returning their lost or stolen crypto funds. Mostly this assistance is helping to recover the lost password or access to the crypto wallet.
And it’s fair to say they cannot do much. The most frequent operation they are capable of is retrieving your private key from the hard drive that went off. Concerning the rest of the possible problems, if you know the basics of cryptocurrency use, you will probably be able to restore access to a crypto locked in a defunct wallet. Returning stolen crypto is nearly impossible.
Crypto Recovery Services: Scam or Legitimate?
Let’s set it straight, the majority of the platforms presenting themself as crypto recovery services are outright frauds. However, some percent are the genuine platforms that help to restore the lost coins and we cannot fully dismiss them. Moreover, we should do our best to highlight them and distinguish them from scammers.
If a significant amount of your crypto was stolen or lost you can feel that you are ready to do whatever it takes to recover it. This emotional state makes you an easier target for scammers. People who have already lost crypto or been robbed by cyber criminals are already in a vulnerable position and scammers get advantage of this. Fraudsters give hope and some people fall for it and help scammers to steal more money. They claim that they will return your funds that were stolen or lost and they will take a little fee for their service.
To create an impression of a legitimate service, scammers tend to set up websites with respectable appearance and do all they can to get these websites to the top of the Google search engine results.
Red Flags
First and foremost, ignore the services asking to pay in advance. Don’t do that at any event. If the service claims they can use some hacking to recover your coins, this service is a scam and its only intention is reaching for your money. Usually, fraudulent recovery services don’t have phone numbers and conduct all the communication via messengers with a concealed phone number.
If for any reason you want to use a crypto recovery service, you should pay attention to the website details. If you encounter poor grammar, bags, useless or lacking sections, it’s a red flag. Bad naming, logo, or design can also be a warning sign.
Some of these services can have reviews and press releases posted on cryptocurrency-related websites. The press releases speak about the benefits of using a certain crypto recovery service. It’s understood that all this info is false.
If the websites that post such articles don’t look like trustworthy sources, you can ignore the recovery services they write about. There is a high chance that these publications don’t do a fact check or are affiliated with scammers. If you see a post about such a service on the website you trust, make sure the text contains the author’s own experience with the platform and has any independent info and not copied from the press release.
Websites and news outlets are far from being the only info resources scammers use. They incorporate social media. They buy ads and positive feedback from phony users or experts. The user testimonials claiming they managed to return the stolen or lost coins via a crypto recovery service are certainly fake. Some scammers manage to post positive feedback to their “services” on websites like Trustpilot despite the platform’s fierce battle with fake accounts.
How Crypto Recovery Scams Work?
There are certain patterns in the ways all these scammers act. See the methods they use below.
Image source: Reddit
Scammers can approach you first and show up in your DMs. Alternatively you can stumble upon scammers via the ads on websites or social media platforms. Scammers will call themselves “recovery specialists,” “bounty hunters,” or similarly.
To check the authenticity of the service you may check the reviews and find forged positive user feedback. These stories can be found on social media, websites like Trustpilot, etc.
Image source: Aura
If you buy these stories, you may decide to use the service. Scammers will ask you to pay in advance. The fee may depend on the sum you want to recover. Some scammers prefer fixed fees though. If you proceed and pay the requested fee, the fraudster will ask for another payment later and will do that repeatedly until you realize you were scammed.
Some fraudsters act differently. They don’t ask to pay the upfront fee. Instead they will try to obtain your private data needed to access your crypto wallet. Most probably they will request it claiming that they need this info to recover your funds. The personal info they can get in the process may be used for other crimes.
Keep Your Crypto Safe with Freewallet Web3 Wallet
To avoid the very situation where you have to guess if the recovery service is legit or not, you should prevent the stealing or loss of your crypto in the first place. The Web3 Wallet by Freewallet is the solution that facilitates safe storage and management of your crypto funds.
If some crypto is locked on your now defunct wallet, you can retrieve it by importing crypto to your Web3 Wallet. To do so you will need to enter a seed phrase.
Web3 Wallet by Freewallet is a self-custody cryptocurrency wallet supporting over 1,000 crypto assets across 15 blockchains. It can be installed as a browser extension or a mobile app. On top of basic features it offers integrated centralized and decentralized crypto exchanges and an instant swap service. Via this app you can buy crypto by card through our partner local payment operators. The wallet allows you to access dApps and DeFi platforms via WalletConnect.
As Web3 Wallet is a non-custodial service, you don’t have to provide email or any other info while setting up an account. So creating the wallet account is easy, safe, and fast.
The app doesn’t collect any personal info and has no access to your private keys which are stored locally. To access the wallet on different devices you will need to enter a seed phrase. The app is protected by the PIN code or passkey. Also you can set spending limits and biometry sign-ins. With Web3 Wallet you drastically decrease the probability of loss or stealing of your crypto funds. Hence, you won’t have to look for the crypto recovery services and risk the rest of your money.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, if you lose your crypto funds, the chance of returning them back is pretty small. If you are looking for the helping hand, you should beware of scammers ready to exploit your emotional state and promise the solution in exchange for a hefty advance or personal data.
The genuine recovery services won’t offer you any hacking methods and won’t request upfront fees. Mostly they are busy recovering funds from the wallets set on the broken hard disks.
Scammers won’t use or reveal phone numbers, they will use every possibility to take money from you before they recover your funds or request your personal data. To make you trust them, they use fake testimonials and success stories posted on the crypto websites and on social media. Watch out!
It’s better to take care of the safety of your cryptocurrencies now. Web3 Wallet by Freewallet is a strong solution to this problem with many extra advantages and diverse set of features.