West Yorkshire
Cryptocurrency fraud investigation in Leeds
We work remotely with clients in Leeds and across West Yorkshire, following lost cryptocurrency through the public transfer record and setting out the path, the endpoints and the limits in a written report.
What we see in West Yorkshire
Reports from a Leeds address go to Action Fraud and are assessed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau; any referral is passed to West Yorkshire Police. As everywhere in England and Wales, most reports are held as intelligence rather than allocated, and a documented trace is what gives a reviewing officer something checkable to work from.
Leeds is a major financial and legal centre, and cases from the region frequently involve payments made from mainstream UK bank accounts before conversion. That is useful: where money left a UK account there is a parallel route through your bank and, in some cases, the authorised push payment reimbursement rules, which does not exist for payments made from an exchange balance.
We have no Leeds office and no local agents. Contact us on the details published on this site and nowhere else.
First steps if you have just lost funds
Step 1
Report to Action Fraud
Use actionfraud.police.uk or 0300 123 2040. Any referral from a Leeds report goes to West Yorkshire Police. Keep the crime reference number.
Step 2
Notify your bank in writing the same day
Where funds left a UK bank account or card, report it immediately and ask whether the reimbursement rules for authorised push payments apply to your payment.
Step 3
Tell the receiving exchange
Send transaction hashes, dates and amounts to the service that received the funds, through its official channel.
Step 4
Preserve the record
Export hashes, addresses, statements and message histories before accounts are closed.
There is a fuller walkthrough in our guide on reporting cryptocurrency fraud in the UK, and on preserving evidence before it disappears.
Questions from Leeds clients
- Which police force covers cryptocurrency fraud in Leeds?
- West Yorkshire Police, where the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau refers your Action Fraud report to them. Reporting starts with Action Fraud rather than the force.
- I paid from my UK bank account. Does that help?
- It gives you a second route. Your bank must consider the payment, and reimbursement rules may apply depending on how the payment was made. Report it in writing the same day.
- Do you need to meet me in Leeds?
- No. The work is entirely digital and we handle West Yorkshire cases remotely on the same terms as any other.