The pattern is consistent: contact after a loss, a claim that funds have been located or frozen, then a fee, tax, deposit or verification payment required before release.
Nothing is released, and the request repeats. Legitimate work is scoped and priced in writing before it starts, and no genuine process requires payment in cryptocurrency to unlock cryptocurrency.
Related terms
Irreversibility
The property that a confirmed transfer cannot be undone by the sender, the network or any authority.
Impersonation fraud
Someone posing as a bank, exchange, investigator or official to obtain funds or access.
Evidence pack
A structured written report setting out the traced path, the hashes behind it, and the confidence in each step.
Trying to work out what happened to your funds?
The first review is free and we set out scope and price in writing before any paid work.