Recovery Scams: The Second Wave That Targets People Who Already Lost Money

Why victims are targeted twice

Once a loss becomes visible — in a public comment, a review site, a support group — it signals to fraud operators that a person has both money at risk and a strong motivation to act. Recovery scams exploit that motivation directly.

How the approach usually arrives

• An unsolicited message from a "blockchain specialist", "cyber agent", "lawyer" or "certified recovery expert".
• A referral posted under a complaint, often from an account created recently.
• Screenshots of supposedly recovered balances, or a small fabricated "partial recovery".

The fee pattern

1. A modest upfront payment is requested for tools, gas, filing or verification.
2. A second charge appears once the first is paid, framed as unavoidable.
3. Contact ends, or the demands continue until the victim stops paying.

What to do

• Never pay an upfront fee for recovery, and never share a seed phrase, private key, password or one-time code.
• Capture the profile link, phone number, wallet address and full conversation before blocking.
• Document the approach on ScamWatch so the identifiers can be indexed for other users.