How do I report a crypto scam and recover my money?
You sent the crypto, and now the platform has gone quiet or the wallet you paid belongs to a stranger you can’t find. The question most people ask first is who to tell, and whether telling anyone changes anything. It can, but mostly if you move while the trail is fresh.
Start with IC3
The FBI runs the Internet Crime Complaint Center at IC3.gov, and for crypto fraud that is the report that matters most. Fill out the complaint form with everything you have: the wallet addresses you sent to, the transaction IDs (those long hash strings), the amount and type of coin, the dates, and any messages or website links from the people who took it. The more transaction hashes you include, the more useful your report is, because that is what investigators actually follow on-chain. IC3 will not call you back about a single loss. What it does is connect your report to others naming the same wallets, and that is how cases get built. The FBI’s Operation Level Up, which works from these reports, says it has notified close to 9,000 victims and cut losses by an estimated $562 million as of early 2026.
Tell the exchange right away
If you bought or sent the crypto through an exchange like Coinbase, Kraken, or Binance.US, contact their fraud or support team the same day. When the money is still sitting in a wallet they control, a fast report sometimes gets it frozen before it moves out. Give them the transaction hashes too. Speed is the whole game here. Once funds hop into a mixer or an overseas exchange, that freeze window usually closes.
Add the FTC, and the SEC or CFTC
File with the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. If the scam was dressed up as an investment, a trading platform, or a “broker,” report it to the SEC through its tips portal and to the CFTC as well. These agencies do not refund individual losses, but investment-fraud reports feed enforcement actions that occasionally lead to seizures, and sometimes to returned funds. One state attorney general recently returned $6 million to residents out of seized scam proceeds. That kind of return is rare, and it only reaches people who reported.
File a local police report too
A local report can feel pointless for an online crime, and your local department probably cannot chase an offshore wallet. Do it anyway. A case number is often what your bank or a civil attorney needs before they will act on your behalf, and it puts the loss on the official record where it belongs.
Be careful who you trust next
Within days, you may hear from someone on Telegram, Instagram, or TikTok promising to “recover” your crypto for an upfront fee. That is almost always the same crew, or one like it, working the victim list a second time. No legitimate firm asks for crypto or gift cards in advance to unlock your money. Our guide on whether a crypto recovery service is legit walks through the tells. Real tracing is open and named, and it follows the money so law enforcement can act on it. It is not a money-back guarantee.
When it is worth bringing in help
For most losses, the reports above are the realistic path, and they cost nothing. If your loss is large, or you need an evidence package that holds up for a bank dispute or a civil case, our Investigation Help page covers the smaller attribution work we take on. For five- and six-figure cases that need court-grade attribution, we route to Rexxfield.
Reporting will not undo what happened, and i won’t pretend the odds are better than they are. But the trail is most readable in the first 72 hours, and every wallet address you hand over is something a person can actually follow.
— Gus