Blockchain security firm SlowMist has recently warned the Web3 community about a cryptocurrency scam scheme gaining significant popularity, targeting users who have already fallen victim to an exploit and are desperately seeking solutions to recover their funds.
If you are an active X (formerly Twitter) user, you may have come across posts mentioning services claiming to be exceptionally efficient in the recovery of lost assets, which frequently appear in discussions and alerts regarding exploits. Unfortunately, some of these posts are published by scammers attempting to further capitalize on victims of cryptocurrency fraud.
Cryptocurrency users not only have to remain vigilant to avoid falling into the traps set by scammers but also face the challenge of protecting their remaining assets from criminals posing as legitimate crypto recovery companies and teams.
Whether you have already been a victim of cryptocurrency theft and are searching for trustworthy recovery agents, or your crypto experience has been smooth so far, it is important to understand how a crypto recovery expert operates and recognize red flags that can help you identify scammers impersonating asset recovery agents. You can find this information as well as Jurat, Crypto Asset Recovery and CNC Intelligence reviews in this article.
Read also: Wallet Drainer Promising to Bypass Any Transaction Simulation Now Available for Sale
Legitimate crypto recovery companies: crypto tracing vs recovering lost funds
The question of the legitimacy of cryptocurrency recovery agents is rather challenging, as there are multiple factors that should be considered.
First of all, it is necessary to understand that the recovery of cryptocurrency and NFTs often involves law enforcement intervention. Typically, the majority of legitimate crypto recovery companies can assist such intervention by tracing the flow of stolen funds.
However, this investigation itself, no matter how successful, is usually not sufficient for asset recovery, as it often depends on the willingness of law enforcement agencies to use the reports provided by legitimate crypto recovery companies. This, in turn, depends on numerous factors, including the level of cooperation between law enforcement, independent cybersecurity companies, on-chain analysts, and the general legal approach to cryptocurrency in a particular country.
Can cryptocurrency tracing services assist law enforcement?
Some stories offer hope for positive developments in law enforcement's approach to tackling cryptocurrency scams when partnering with industry organizations. One recent success story was revealed by Web3 security company SlowMist in February. In collaboration with the XREX trading platform, the on-chain security experts assisted Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau and the Judicial Reform Foundation in investigating a sophisticated phishing scam targeting users of the decentralized social platform Friend.tech.
Together, they helped a victim of a personalized phishing scam, which led to the loss of 14.2 ETH worth $47,000. In this particular situation, all the involved parties experienced swift cooperation, which enabled them to trace, freeze, and eventually recover the stolen funds from an OKX exchange address.
Unfortunately, not all cases have such a positive outcome, and sometimes law enforcement ignores the evidence and support provided by legitimate crypto recovery companies.
For instance, based on Trustpilot reviews from users of CNC Intelligence services, a popular crypto asset recovery agent further discussed in this article, such cases are not uncommon. It seems that some victims struggled to utilize the reports provided by CNC Intelligence, as "online fraud doesn't seem to come under anyone's jurisdiction, so it's pointless."
Another Trustpilot user, Joe Y, complained that "No law enforcement was interested in my CNC report," while user Daniel Clements believes that "CNC is trying to help victims of illegal activities, but they don't have the legal authority to do much in retrieving scammed funds."
Whether these claims about CNC Intelligence are true or not, such issues can arise with any other crypto recovery services, even if they are performed diligently and effectively by their providers.
Based on this factor, it may be safe to assume that companies that label themselves as cryptocurrency recovery agents but do not have the legal power to enforce the return of funds based on their investigations, intentionally or unintentionally, confuse potential clients who may expect guaranteed money recovery if the investigation is successful.
However, some cryptocurrency recovery agents can also provide their customers with assistance from a crypto asset recovery lawyer if law enforcement agencies refuse to use the scam tracing reports in their investigation. According to CNC Intelligence’s responses to some negative Trustpilot reviews, this is an additional form of support the company offers to its clients. However, it is reasonable to conclude that the services of a crypto asset recovery lawyer will require further payments.
Who is a crypto asset recovery lawyer?
Due to the novelty of cryptocurrency and its continually evolving legal status, many lawyers do not handle related matters. Those who do work with legal issues associated with digital assets do not necessarily specialize in cryptocurrency recovery, as there are many other legal cases that require professional assistance, including compliance with regulatory bodies, as well as the legal aspects of tokenization and intellectual property.
However, the career path of a dedicated crypto asset recovery lawyer does exist despite its lack of widespread popularity. Such a lawyer is a specialist engaged in fraud investigations and pursuing legal action against cryptocurrency-related frauds, such as ICO scams or phishing attacks. A crypto asset recovery lawyer can also help resolve disputes with cryptocurrency exchanges and provide defense in court for clients accused of crimes in the cryptocurrency space.
Crypto crime investigation reports
As you can see, it may be challenging to determine whether recovery agents are legitimate or not if their reports are not included in the legal investigation. While this can happen due to poor cooperation between law enforcement and on-chain analysts, it can also result from the reports lacking value. In the latter scenario, the company you are dealing with is likely to be a scam.
In addition to some crypto fraud and asset recovery assistants attracting customers through false promises while lacking the skills to assist in the return of stolen funds, there are also fraudulent scammers pretending to be crypto recovery agents in the first place.
Not legitimate crypto recovery companies - beware of scam recovery services
In its March report, SlowMist shared a particular instance of this scam, involving cybercriminals operating under the name Cyber Rescue. To understand the details of the scam, SlowMist contacted the malicious actors pretending to be a victim of an exploit.
"Cyber Rescue first inquires about the time of the theft, the wallet used, and the cause behind the theft, and then claims they can recover 100% of the stolen funds,'" SlowMist reported, adding that such an assertion should be viewed by cryptocurrency users as a red flag.
To enable the transfer of recovered assets, Cyber Rescue uses USDT on the BNB Smart Chain as well as the multi-platform crypto wallet MathWallet. As identified by SlowMist, the MathWallet feature allowing users to manipulate token precision played a critical role in deceiving victims, making them believe they were receiving the correct amount when, in reality, they received significantly less. At the time of publication, this functionality had already been disabled by MathWallet in response to news about its abuse by scammers.
SlowMist emphasized that the default token precision provided by MathWallet right after the app was downloaded was eighteen. However, scammers urged victims to change the decimals to zero when the contract address was entered.
"The trick here is to get the victim to add the correct USDT contract address but incorrect decimals," SlowMist explains, adding that "The higher the decimals value, the greater the precision of the token."
The token decimal manipulation helped scammers pretend they transferred a large sum of money, while in reality, it was a negligible amount. In the particular case of SlowMist playing a victim of an exploit, the wallet balance indeed changed to 89,589 USDT after the transfer. Yet, as the cybersecurity team reported, "Upon checking the block explorer, it was discovered that the scammer actually transferred only 0.000000000000089589 USDT."
To facilitate the scam, the malicious actor also demanded victims' private keys, supposedly required to conduct fund transfers. Furthermore, to steal even more funds, scammers suggested that victims maintain a specific balance in BNB for transactions. It was advised to have an available balance of "10% of the initial balance on the BNB Smart Chain network." In SlowMist’s case, this would result in an additional loss of nearly $9,000.
The blockchain security team claimed that the numerous small transactions made to other addresses from the scammer’s address indicate that the malicious actor was actively conducting scam attacks at press time.
Read also: Everything You Need to Know about Revoking Approvals and Revoke.Cash
Double cryptocurrency fraud
Although there has not been enough discussion on exploits committed by scammers masquerading as crypto recovery agents, this type of exploit has been around for quite some time. Typically, criminals involved in such exploits prefer to promote their crypto scam recovery services in the comment sections under posts about recent attacks. However, there have also been reports of combined tactics that include two phishing attacks performed consecutively targeting the same victim.
Some of these exploits also abuse the gold checkmarks used on the X platform as proof of verified business accounts.
According to SlowMist’s investigation, scammers can easily purchase verified accounts with characteristics optimized for a particular scam campaign. The team reported dedicated Telegram channels and websites offering "Twitter accounts from various years and support for the purchase of specific, similar accounts."
One tactic adopted by these criminals starts with the promotion of phishing links incorporated into posts from fake X gold-labeled business accounts advertising crypto airdrops. The gold checkmarks successfully confuse users, including those who are aware of phishing scams.
Next, once the owner of digital assets gets scammed, they receive a message from a malicious actor posing as a crypto recovery assistant who is likely to initiate a video call, supposedly aiming to guide the victim through a revoking process via Etherscan. The cybercriminal then urges the victim to share their screen, which will expose their private key and lead to a new attack. Ultimately, all the remaining assets can be drained completely.
"Today, I lost 90% of the on-chain portfolio I had built up over the last 3 years," X user Pnuts, who became a victim of a similar exploit based on the impersonation of a Wormhole business account, shared with the X community on March 7.
"I clicked on a bad link to check my Wormhole eligibility, which looked like it was from the official account," Pnuts provided more details on the incident.
"I ran down to the computer in a panic, and vienn_eth is messaging me asking if I've been hacked, then offers to help. We DM, and he starts a video call walking me through revoking on Etherscan and asks me to send him screenshots (which in my panic, I stupidly do)," Pnuts related the second part of the incident, which allowed the crook not only to drain the remaining funds from the compromised wallet but also to transfer funds from the SOL wallet.
Cryptocurrency recovery agents - Binance’s suggestions
As you can already imagine, identifying teams that can genuinely assist crypto users with the recovery of digital funds can be rather complicated. Not only are there companies with aggressive and misleading promotion of their services, but there are also obvious scams.
One option you can choose to stay on the safe side is to contact Web3 cybersecurity firms or individual on-chain sleuths who are already widely recognized for their efficient cryptocurrency tracing services in the market.
For instance, the victim of the Friend.tech phishing scam who was lucky enough to recover their stolen money directly contacted SlowMist. In addition to its proficiency in tracing cyber criminals, law enforcement agencies may also be more willing to cooperate with SlowMist due to its status as one of the blockchain security industry leaders. While this does not necessarily mean that all smaller or newer cybersecurity firms are less effective, renowned teams have naturally gained particular authority.
If you are specifically looking for a team specializing in scam or theft recovery, you might be interested in reading reviews of the three noteworthy crypto recovery companies in 2023, such as Jurat, M2 Recovery, CNC Intelligence, and Crypto Asset Recovery, which were highlighted by the leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance in its article on the top tools to recover your lost cryptocurrency.
Read also: How to Recover Stolen Cryptocurrency: A Guide for Victims
What is Jurat?
One of the tools suggested by Binance is Jurat, a platform pioneering a unique approach to crypto recovery, diverging from conventional software methodologies as it aims to embed legal rights directly onto the blockchain through a specialized Bitcoin hard fork.
The team behind Jurat has created an on-chain legal system, commonly referred to as on-chain enforcement, which has already been adopted by the US courts. These courts utilize linked nodes for synchronization with Jurat. As a result, the Jurat blockchain can interpret and carry out the court's directives on-chain, guaranteeing the smooth enforcement of legal decisions.
"For blockchains that adopt Jurat, like the JTC blockchain, a user can go to court to prove that the crypto belongs to them and have the court enter an order returning it," Jurat explains its functionality helping the victims of cryptocurrency scam incidents with legal proceedings.
How can you recover crypto with Jurat?
As an example of fund recovery, the Jurat team provides details of a case involving the loss of a private key. According to Jurat, as the owner of the wallet, you can initiate a recovery case by generating a unique Jurat Request ID. This ID serves as a reference point, pinpointing your coins and their specific location within the blockchain. Thus, the ID guides the court on where to transfer the coins, typically directing them to a wallet that you control.
In practice, this ID is a code that includes the details of the transaction that the claimant wants to be added to the blockchain, and it is not limited to the return of funds only. For instance, it is also possible to request fund freezing.
"Jurat-enabled witness nodes access the court’s public docket and can recognize the Jurat Request ID," the Jurat team further explains the docket connection.
Subsequently, the case is presented before a judge, and its success depends on how efficiently you can convince them of your ownership over the coins stored in the wallet.
"This can be achieved in various ways, such as presenting records from a centralized exchange like Coinbase, proving that you sent the coins to your unhosted wallet," Jurat suggests one of the options, adding that "This is just one example; judges can consider many forms of evidence."
Last year, Mike Kanovitz, the CEO at Jurat, provided more insights into the technology behind legal enforcement, calling it "complete decentralization."
As per Kanovitz, courts incorporate hashed codes within their judgments to specify particular transactions mandated by their orders, such as freezing or transferring a coin, whereas the blockchain nodes "can then access the court's public docket to view the court's order and confirm the hash." This verification process mirrors the nodes' existing method of confirming transactions signed with a private key.
Meanwhile, the execution of court orders is conducted without a central authority due to the blockchain’s native consensus process.
"Moreover, the judge's hash codes can be read by the nodes without involving any intermediaries - not even an attorney," Kanovitz stated.
Opinions about Jurat
It is quite challenging to find reviews of Jurat left by cryptocurrency users who have had a chance to test the effectiveness of this service. However, it is known that Jurat has been successfully used to enforce the orders of federal lawsuits.
One such case took place in August 2023, when Jurat enabled on-chain enforcement of a ruling that prohibited Russian and North Korean hackers from accessing their accounts.
Despite these use cases of Jurat, the tool has sparked criticism among Bitcoin purists and avid decentralization advocates who argue that it compromises the foundational principles of blockchain autonomy and undermines the essence of decentralized finance.
Kanovitz responded to the critics of Jurat’s approach in an interview with Cointelegraph last year, emphasizing that "Some of the people who currently think that there should not be effective law enforcement on-chain would feel differently if they got hacked, defrauded, or lost their private keys."
"Then they would be relieved that they can recover their property," Kanovitz added.
Crypto Asset Recovery (CAR)
Crypto Asset Recovery, also known as CAR, is a platform that provides cryptocurrency users with a range of services, such as password, seed phrase, and wallet recovery. For scam victims, the CAR team offers a tracing service, which can assist them in "uncovering the real-world identity of their scammer."
CAR emphasizes that it is not specialized in the recovery of scammed or stolen assets, stating that "When you have lost funds to a crypto scam, the odds of recovering those funds are very small to none."
How can Crypto Asset Recovery help you get your stolen money back?
As mentioned above, Crypto Asset Recovery cannot recover your funds, but it can support your case with scam tracing services.
"Our investigation specialists will create a case detailing and visualizing the path your funds took and any connections we are able to make to real-world entities," the CAR team explains.
"Once you have that information on hand, we will explain the recommended recovery path through law enforcement and any relevant exchanges to give you the best chance at recovery possible," the CAR specialists add.
How much do Crypto Asset Recovery services cost?
Crypto Asset Recovery does not specify the prices for its scam tracing services. However, it values its assistance in password recovery at 20% of the recovered assets. The team claims that its service is risk-free, stressing that CAR’s customers only have to pay if the team manages to recover the funds. Thus, if the service proves ineffective and no money is recovered, the customer will not have to pay anything.
Yet, in the case of scam tracing services, CAR asks for an upfront fee which is not disclosed.
Crypto Asset Recovery review
According to the customer review service Trustpilot, Crypto Asset Recovery boasts an "excellent" score of 4.5 stars out of 5 based on 73 reviews.
Almost every Crypto Asset Recovery review left on Trustpilot gave the highest score to this service. The majority of customers shared their positive experience of working with CAR, emphasizing the effectiveness and transparency of this service, as well as the supportiveness of the customer service team and clear communication. Additionally, users particularly appreciate the fee structure that is based on payments required only upon successful fund recovery.
However, two of the most recent reviews were rather negative, giving the services only one star and accusing the team of being a scam. It is unclear whether these reviews are legitimate, as according to CAR, the team asked the anonymous user who left one of those comments to reveal their identity so that Crypto Asset Recovery could verify their cooperation, and that person declined the request. At the same time, CAR warned crypto users of possible scam attempts impersonating their services.
CNC Intelligence team
According to the official website of CNC Intelligence, it is a multidisciplinary team offering tailored solutions for private customers, law enforcement agencies, and law firms who need assistance in cryptocurrency fraud and theft investigations, cryptocurrency tracing, and digital asset recovery, as well as offshore legal matters.
"We provide our clients with tailor-made Asset Recovery Plans that match their budget and take into account the individual aspects of the case, providing our clients with the best value for their hard-earned money," the CNC Intelligence team lists its services on the official website, emphasizing the effectiveness of its cyber intelligence services and proficiency in "gathering essential evidence for varied cases.
CNC Intelligence review
At the time of publication, CNC Intelligence scored four stars out of five on Trustpilot based on seventy-one reviews, with 66% of reviewers giving the service five stars. Some reviews highly recommend CNC Intelligence, while others expressed opposite opinions, particularly regarding customer service, which was praised by some customers and heavily criticized by others. Many Trustpilot users also appreciated the company’s professionalism, which allowed them to recover their funds lost in cryptocurrency scam incidents.
Meanwhile, 20% of the reviewers gave the service only one star. The most recent of them highlighted the fact that the asset recovery services provided by CNC Intelligence Inc were actually mere cryptocurrency tracing services similar to those offered by the Crypto Asset Recovery team discussed earlier.
In response to the negative review describing the instance in which the report on the stolen funds flow conducted by CNC Intelligence was rejected by law enforcement and therefore, did not assist in the return of lost crypto assets, the team wrote, "It is important to clarify that our primary role is to provide comprehensive tracing services, which we did successfully in your case." Meanwhile, the final recovery still does not depend on the CNC Intelligence team.
"I wouldn't say they are a scam, because work was done, but it was ultimately pointless and customer service appalling," Trustpilot user Josh, one of the customers of CNC Intelligence Inc sharing a negative experience of cooperation with the team, complained.
"They basically find a little bit of information about what happened and say go to the police with it, but online fraud doesn't seem to come under anyone's jurisdiction so it's pointless," Josh added.
How to spot legitimate crypto recovery companies?
As you have understood so far, finding legitimate crypto recovery companies that will really help you to return your stolen cryptocurrency may not be the easiest task.
You may want to start by assessing the selected company from the point of view of red flags, which will help you identify attempts of phishing scams.
First of all, beware of cryptocurrency tracing and recovery agents who contact you directly after a scam attack. The fact they already know about your unfortunate experience, especially in a short time, may be the strongest proof of them being threat actors involved in the same cryptocurrency scam that drained your funds.
It is also not a sensible idea to contact any of the companies mentioned in the comments promising a successful return of your stolen cryptocurrency or NFTs, especially if they are left under any social media posts announcing exploits. Usually, it is a place where you can find numerous spam-like recommendations.
Additionally, be skeptical about the promises given by the recovery agents. Cryptocurrency tracing itself is a complex task, let alone the recovery process. As you now know, recovery itself is something the majority of teams do not do despite their claims of being recovery companies. Make sure you fully understand the scope of work provided by the team you would like to partner with for the investigation of your case and do not believe in false promises, such as a guarantee of 100% fund recovery.
Furthermore, note that although poor professional presentation is quite common for cryptocurrency scam attempts, more targeted phishing attacks can be much more sophisticated and deceptive. However, individuals or groups that only pretend to offer asset recovery services may not have any physical address or provide rather limited communication methods, which themselves are red flags.
Remember to verify the credibility of the company’s website. Although URL checkers may significantly decrease the credibility score of a website just because it is related to cryptocurrency, which such tools often associate with high risks, you can still use them for the assessment of other credibility markers including HTTPS connection, domain blocklist status, website popularity, domain WHOIS (Who Owns the Data), and domain creation date. While the latter may not necessarily indicate the credibility of the website, in certain scenarios it can help you detect a serious red flag, for instance, when a domain was created after the announcement of an exploit.
Using the organization’s name with such keywords as "reviews," "opinions," "complaints," and "scam" may help you find any related information.
Finally, remember that legitimate crypto recovery companies will work with you after having a written agreement. While not having a written agreement is itself a red flag, it is also crucial to read the agreement carefully to be aware of all the implications of signing such a document and cooperating with the selected recovery agents.
Bottom line: cryptocurrency tracing and recovery process
The rise in cryptocurrency scam popularity has led to an increased demand for crypto asset recovery services and dedicated law firms. While legitimate companies aim to assist victims of cryptocurrency fraud incidents in recovering their lost funds, the landscape is riddled with potential pitfalls.
Alongside numerous malicious actors stealing funds from cryptocurrency users who have already fallen victim to scams, there are also legal challenges in leveraging the help of trustworthy crypto recovery agents, as not all law enforcement agencies are prepared to cooperate with third-party teams in their investigations regarding the theft of digital currencies. In some cases, paying high fees for acquiring a crypto scam tracing report may only add to the financial damage if such documentation is not used in the official investigation.
It is crucial for victims to exercise due diligence when choosing trustworthy cryptocurrency tracing and recovery services and navigate this complex and ever-changing landscape with care to make well-informed choices to avoid getting exploited by further crypto fraud.
