Someone says they can recover my lost crypto for a fee. Is it real?

The full answer

A recovery scam targets people who have already lost money. Someone offers to get the money back, asks for a fee first, and then disappears or asks for more. US and Canadian authorities describe the same pattern and give the same test: a request for money to recover money is the warning sign.

How does a recovery scam usually work?

The FBI’s August 2025 alert lists the signs of a fake “crypto recovery law firm.”" The contact may use fake documents with a real firm’s letterhead, claim to be an authorized partner of government agencies, and cite bodies that do not exist, “such as the International Financial Trading Commission.” The FBI states: “There are no law firms which are officially authorized partners of US Government agencies.”[2] The scammers ask for “payment in cryptocurrency or prepaid gift cards,” and the FBI adds that “The US Government does not request payment for law enforcement services provided.”[2]

One detail makes the pitch convincing. The fake firm may have “knowledge of the exact amounts and dates of previous wire transfers and the third-party company where the victim previously sent scammed funds.”[2] Knowing those numbers does not show that the caller is official.

Canadian authorities report the same script under other names. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) is “continuing to see an increase in reports of fraudsters impersonating the CAFC” in recovery frauds. The fees it lists include “administrative fees,” “taxes or legal costs,” “security deposits” and “cryptocurrency or wire transfer fees.”[4] In August 2026 the Canadian Securities Administrators warned that fraudsters were using the name of the Swiss bank Union Bancaire Privée to charge upfront “release” or “processing” fees on money lost to fake crypto platforms. “Once this payment is made, no funds are released. In some cases, additional fees are requested.”[5]

The CAFC’s rule is short: “If someone asks you to pay money to recover money you have already lost, it is a fraud.”[4]

How big is the problem?

In 2025 the IC3 recorded “10,516 Complaints; $1.4 billion in Losses” for recovery scams, and noted more complaints reporting impersonation of government officials and recovery firms.[1] People aged 60 and over reported $540,505,980 of it.[1] The IC3 adds that the losses “may also include losses experienced from previous scams which prompted the contact with the recovery company,”[1] so the $1.4 billion is not all new money lost to the recovery pitch.

Official Canadian totals for 2025 were not found in the CAFC pages read on September 29, 2026.

How do I verify a law-enforcement or regulator contact is genuine?

The FBI recommends a “Zero Trust” model, “which assumes no one should be trusted by default and every request should be verified.” It suggests calling “your local office for the associated government entity” to confirm the person’s identity.[2]

The CAFC gives a matching method for Canada. Hang up, then “contact your financial institution using the phone number on the back of your debit or credit card,” and “never use the phone number, email address or website provided by the caller.” It also says “The CAFC and police will never” ask you to “transfer money or make a payment.”[4]

Regulators name their own channels. The BC Securities Commission says it “does not have a ‘Recovery Unit,’” sends email only from @bcsc.bc.ca, and will never “Promote companies or entities that claim to recover funds from scams.”[6] The US Justice Department says it and its remission administrators “will never ask for payment to participate in or receive funds from the remission process.”[7]

Do legitimate blockchain tracing firms exist, and how do they charge?

Tracing itself is real. The IC3 says law enforcement “can trace cryptocurrency transactions to follow money in ways not possible with other financial systems.”[3] The IC3’s warning is worded with care: “Be wary of cryptocurrency recovery services, especially those charging an up-front fee.”[3] It does not say that every service is fake.

Anyone who has already paid a recovery firm can find the reporting routes on how to report an XRP scam or theft.

Where do real recoveries come from?

The official routes that sometimes return money, and how rarely they return crypto, are covered on whether stolen XRP can be recovered. The strongest point against treating every offer as a scam is that tracing works, as the IC3 says.[3] Still, none of the official sources read describes a firm that makes first contact and charges a fee as a route to getting money back.

Someone who lost access to their own XRP, rather than having it stolen, faces a different problem, covered on finding or recovering old XRP.