What happens to a report
Cryptocurrency fraud is reported to Action Fraud, the national reporting centre, either online or on 0300 123 2040. In Scotland, reports go directly to Police Scotland on 101.
A report is assessed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, which looks for viable lines of enquiry and links to other reports. If it finds them, the case may be disseminated to a local force. If it does not, the report is retained as intelligence and no force picks it up.
This is the part that surprises people most: a report is a record, not an investigation. Most reports are never allocated to an officer, and the absence of contact does not mean anything has gone wrong with your report.
What police can do that you cannot
- Compel disclosure. An exchange will not tell you who owns a deposit address. It will respond to a lawful request from a police force.
- Seek restraint of funds. Where an account still holds identifiable proceeds, there are legal mechanisms to freeze and eventually recover them.
- Join reports together. Individual losses that look isolated often share collection addresses, and only a body seeing many reports can spot that.
- Work internationally, slowly. Mutual legal assistance exists, but timescales run to months and years rather than weeks.
What makes a report more likely to be actioned
Reviewing officers work with limited time and a large queue. What moves a report up that queue is not emotion or loss size alone — it is whether it presents a viable, verifiable line of enquiry that someone can act on without reconstructing it first.
- Transaction hashes for every payment, so each claim can be independently checked.
- A clear statement of where funds appear to have ended up, particularly if that is a named regulated service.
- Dates, amounts and the platform or person involved, set out in order rather than as a narrative.
- Any identity material you legitimately hold: the account you paid, the website used, the numbers and handles that contacted you.
Where a private trace fits
A private investigation firm cannot compel disclosure, cannot freeze anything and has no policing powers. What it can do is prepare the documented path that a police force, bank or solicitor would otherwise have to build themselves — and most will not build it for you.
That is the honest division of labour. We reconstruct and evidence where funds went; acting on that endpoint is a matter for the service holding the funds, the police or a civil claim.
Realistic expectations
Some cases end with funds restrained at an exchange and returned through a legal process. Many end with a documented trail that is filed and goes no further. Both are legitimate outcomes of the same quality of work, and no one can tell you in advance which you will get.
Be wary of anyone who responds to this question with certainty. Guaranteed recovery is not a service that exists.
If you are looking at your own case rather than reading generally, our cryptocurrency investigation service explains how a case is scoped and worked, the asset tracing hub covers the network-specific work, and our overview of cryptocurrency scam recovery in the UK sets out what is realistic. Asset pages: USDT tracing, Bitcoin tracing and Ethereum tracing. You can also contact the investigations team directly.
Common questions
- Do UK police investigate cryptocurrency theft?
- They can. Reports go through Action Fraud and are assessed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, which refers viable cases to a police force. Most reports are retained as intelligence rather than allocated to an officer.
- Will the police tell me who owns a wallet address?
- No. Identity records held by exchanges are released to law enforcement under lawful process, and are not shared with victims or private firms.
- Is it worth reporting if the amount is small?
- Yes. Individually small reports are how patterns are identified, and a crime reference number is required by banks, exchanges and solicitors for almost anything that follows.
- How long does Action Fraud take to respond?
- You receive a crime reference number immediately. Any further contact depends on whether the report is disseminated to a force, which can take weeks and often does not happen at all.
- Can police reverse a cryptocurrency transaction?
- No. A confirmed transfer is final. Police can pursue funds where they are now held, but nobody can undo the transfer itself.
Have a case you want reviewed?
We scope at intake and tell you honestly whether the onchain data supports a traceable case.
Key terms in this guide
Plain-English definitions from the Wallsec glossary.