Recovery Scams: What to Know If You Were Scammed Before

A recovery scam — sometimes called a "refund scam" or "asset recovery scam" — is a cruel trick where criminals contact people who have already lost money to a different scam and promise to get that money back. For a fee. Or for your bank account number. Or for help filling out paperwork they will then use to steal your identity.

Scammers keep lists of past victims and share them with each other. If you were scammed once, your name and number are often sold to other groups, who then call claiming to be from a "fraud recovery" firm, the FBI, a lawyer specializing in wire fraud, or even a "special government task force." They sound sympathetic. They tell you the scammers have been caught. They say you are owed a refund but there are fees to process it.

This is always a scam. There is no legitimate private company that can reliably recover money that was wired, sent in cryptocurrency, or put on gift cards. Law enforcement does not charge victims for returning recovered funds. The FTC, FBI, and state attorneys general never call demanding fees to release a refund. If anyone asks you to pay anything — even a small "processing fee" — to get scammed money back, they are trying to scam you a second time.

Real recovery, when it happens, is handled by banks and payment providers working with law enforcement, and it is free. Your own bank's fraud department is where to start. They know their own reversal windows (how long they have to claw back a transfer). And they will work directly with the other bank. If you sent a wire, you usually have a short window — sometimes just a few hours — to reverse it, which is why calling your bank quickly matters so much.

The emotional side of this is the hardest part. People who have been scammed often feel embarrassed and want to make it right. Scammers know this and use it. If you catch yourself thinking, "I need to get my money back and nobody has to know," please talk to a family member, your bank, and law enforcement before doing anything else. Those are the people who can actually help — at no cost.