Five Things to Do if You’re a Victim of a Scam

Take steps to report the crime, get support, and help others from being victimized.

Take a breath. You have been the target of highly sophisticated criminals. These organizations invest millions of dollars to deceive people like you into moving your life savings into cryptocurrency investment platforms that look incredibly real, but are just facades.

It’s natural to feel embarrassed, upset, and humiliated. But now is the time to hold your head high and be your own best advocate.

1. Collect evidence of the scam. 

The police will need specific information about the money transfer in order to search for your stolen funds. Make sure you bring any receipts or screenshots of the transactions. They will need the transaction hash and the deposit address to trace your cryptocurrency.

2. Report the scam to the FBI. 

Report online to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3.gov). Although you may not hear back directly from the FBI, it is important to file these reports so that the government can track the size of the problem. Additionally, should there be an asset recovery, you want to make sure you have recorded your claim.

3. Contact local law enforcement.

We know it’s not an easy thing to do, but make the call as soon as possible. Ask to speak to a financial crimes detective. Make sure they understand that the crime is happening in their jurisdiction.

If your local agencies are unfamiliar with pig butchering or tell you that it’s a civil case:

• Encourage them to watch “Pig Butchering Scams” from Last Week Tonight. 

• Provide them with information about Operation Shamrock and our collaboration with law enforcement.

4. Report to the Operation Shamrock Chainabuse.com portal.

Providing your details helps private industry and the public sector collaborate in the hopes of quickly freezing your assets. Our triage team evaluates all cases to identify whether there is an opportunity to recover funds. If so, our trained investigators work to pursue recovery. We add the data about scammers to a database to help law enforcement connect cases.

5. Give yourself grace. 

You’re understandably in pain and feel exhausted. Let yourself rest and regroup. When you’re ready, we strongly encourage you and your family members to reach out to any of our trauma-informed victim resource partners.