What the report actually does
Action Fraud is the national reporting centre for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It records your report and passes it to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, which assesses reports for viable investigative leads and links them with others. In Scotland, report to Police Scotland on 101 instead.
Only a minority of reports are disseminated to a police force for investigation. That is a function of volume and of what each report contains — not a judgement about whether you were wronged.
The crime reference number matters more than the report
Keep it somewhere you can find it. Exchanges, banks, insurers and solicitors all ask for it, and it is what allows later evidence to attach to something official rather than arriving as an unsolicited email.
Realistic timescales
- Acknowledgement is usually immediate or within a few days.
- Assessment by the NFIB typically takes weeks rather than days.
- If a report is passed to a force, contact from an officer can take considerably longer.
- No update does not mean closed. You can request a status update through the Action Fraud reporting portal.
What to do while you wait
- Preserve everything now — hashes, addresses, exports, chat logs, screenshots with visible timestamps.
- Notify any bank or exchange involved in writing, quoting the crime reference number.
- Stop all contact with the people involved and never pay anything further.
- Have the movement of funds documented, so that if the case is picked up there is something concrete to act on.
How a trace changes the picture
A report that says money was taken gives a reviewer nothing to verify. A report accompanied by transaction hashes, a hop-by-hop path and an identified terminal point at a named service gives them something they can check in minutes and act on. It does not guarantee an investigation, but it materially changes what is possible.
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
- Can I add evidence to a report I already made?
- Yes. Contact Action Fraud with your crime reference number and ask how to submit additional material. Keep a copy of everything you send.
- Should I report if the amount is small?
- Yes. Reports are linked with others, and small individual losses often form part of a much larger pattern that only becomes visible in aggregate.
- Do I need a police report before you can help?
- No, but you should make one. Evidence is far more useful when it attaches to an open report, and exchanges act on official process.
- How long does Action Fraud take to respond to a crypto report?
- Acknowledgement is usually immediate, and assessment by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau typically takes weeks. Many reports are recorded for intelligence rather than passed to a force, and that is not a comment on your case.
- Why did Action Fraud close my case with no investigation?
- Most closures reflect the volume of reports and the absence of a viable investigative lead, not disbelief. A documented trace with hashes and a named terminal service is exactly the kind of lead that changes that assessment.
- Can I report cryptocurrency fraud to the police directly?
- In Scotland, yes — call Police Scotland on 101. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the route is Action Fraud, unless you are in immediate danger, in which case call 999.
- Will my bank refund me if I sent money to a crypto scam?
- It depends on how the payment was made and whether reimbursement rules apply. Tell the bank in writing the same day, quote the crime reference number, and ask for its decision and reasoning in writing.
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.