Bitcoin Forum

A close relative got scammed by a fake Bitcoin investment company. The scammers bought bitcoins from her account and sent her bank account to hell. She was forced to change bank accounts. After the ordeal, she discovered the investment was not genuine and there was no way the scammers were going to let her have her money back let alone her too good to be true promised profits.
She hired a chargeback firm out of New Jersey and they gave us  a report but never recovered any money. I'll send screenshots of the crypto report we got from the chargeback company.

https://i.ibb.co/DkJq7yX/IMG-20211107-004751.jpg (https://ibb.co/S0jLK8T)

https://i.ibb.co/3djd76M/IMG-20211107-004940.jpg (https://ibb.co/9g1gNKV)

https://i.ibb.co/9cnyr52/IMG-20211107-004826.jpg (https://ibb.co/tQBYJrc)

https://i.ibb.co/Lt4tVRs/IMG-20211107-004728.jpg (https://ibb.co/d2n28MH)

From the above images, the colored highlight indicates
the name of the suspected exchange involved, and where we believe the bitcoins were cashed out.
As you can see, it was discovered 2exchange(s)employed in the transfers of the stolen bitcoins. Please find the attached evidence regarding this case. It shows the trail of transfers
using sophisticated crypto-tracing tools following initial purchase of bitcoins that ended up in a crypto address hosted by the following exchange.
Do you think there’s a chance that we could get something now?

It probably depends on how sophisticated the attack was. It's likely the accounts used in binance and coinbase could also have been hacked or something too.

It probably is possible to track who took the funds but it'll probably take a legal order against one of the exchanges to get information about who the funds were cashed out to and where they ended up - but if they didn't cash out fiat, you might be needing to get the same information later on and I think both exchanges didn't require kyc to deposit.

yes, they didn't ask KYC to deposit. But, they ask KYC level-1 to withdraw the existing funds. So, it is possible to get the information of the rogue from Binance. But, keep in mind Binance will never disclose the sensitive information of their user until they are forced by any legal action. So, at first, the victim has to take legal action against the rogue and by then the legal team will take the proper action with the help of Interpol.

As a company, Binance won't arbitrarily and easily to give up sensitive personal information to any request.

First, they don't know the person who request for such information are legit or hacker
Second, legit or not, they need a real call from government, police, etc. to provide such information.

It is best for Binance and for their customers by going through such strict process.

So if a victim can not provide such information, because of any reason such as Bitcoin or crypto exchange activities are illegal in a specific nation, Binance can not help. Even if they can help with information, it does not mean they will do compensation for the victim if it is not their systematic issues.

Additionally, Bitcoin transaction are irreverisble so when it is confirmed, it's totally done and you can not reverse it. Only the hacker can send it back to you under pressure or call from government or exchange if they pay compensation for you.

I think there is a chance that's why a chargeback firm was hired in the first place.

How was the bank account hacked?
There is a chance of unmasking the hackers if you can determine how they got in.

Have you reported the hack to the bank and the Police? Without reporting to the authorities, you won't get the cooperation of the exchanges listed.
It will be difficult to get back the bitcoin without the help of government agencies as this is a case of hacking bank account and nothing much anyone on this forum can do about it.

Why does the investigation ended only on suspected address? Did your close relative only asking to investigate the address or ask to recover too? The firm should ask Binance and Coinbase about the suspected address, they're responsible for this. Binance and Coinbase won't share sensitive information to unknown person, it's impossible they will.

There's someone could recover his coins back after take legal action before My experience recovering funds after suffering a phishing scam (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5366453.0)

This is just my opinion but if we ever come across that point, I think that some people with malicious intentions are going to definitely use bitcoin recovery in some way to cheat the system. Bitcoin hass the principle of being your own bank which implies that we should be the one that's responsible for our own security and if we fail to do so then it's our undoing. Maybe if we can find a safe and flawless way to verify that you own that bitcoin that you wish to recover, then there's a big chance that it's going to be useful.

to topic creator

your relative got scammed twice
once by the scammer that promised guaranteed profits (obvious scam)
once by a company pretending to be a bitcoin 'chargeback' company but as we all know thats impossible. they instead scammed your friend out of money for a basic bitcoin explorer 'taint' image which anyone can do in 5 minutes
(they offered no chargeback)

in life.. many words of wisdom have been said..
if its seems too good to be true, its a lie
no one gives you money for nothing
if they can make profit they dont need your money

yes your relative got scammed by a fake investment scheme.
yes the chargeback company is not a chargeback company, as bitcoin has no such feature
yes your relative lost alot of money

there is no chance of you getting your coin back unless you take an exchange to court and legally prove you were scammed for them to legally take balance from another persons account
(if chargeback company was indeed a chargeback company they would have done this on your behalf)

Honestly the best thing you can do at this very point is just to contact the authorities and all the exchanges. While many people here have mentioned that binance will not give out personal information about their clients, that is only true for giving out to random people. When it comes to the government and the police, binance will have no choice but to comply. Or at the very least track/freeze the accounts of the scammers.

Since a lot of this scam is involved outside the blockchain, I think tracing the criminals will be easier than if they scammed you out of your bitcoins. I would definitely keep pursuing the hot trail while it's still possible.

I really hope you can get your money back. :'(

The scammers will not make it that easy... having the route that the Bitcoin traveled, is not a grantee that the bitcoins will be recovered. The Chargeback company are making money out of people, by providing you information like this. (They use so-called forensic Blockchain tools, to draw fancy diagrams)

It looks impressive, but Bitcoin is pseudo anonymous... so if those addresses cannot be linked to (centralized) databases, where they paid for services or products and where their real identity were used... you will have zero chance to get back those coins. As I said... scammers will not make it that easy... they will use several Mixer services to cover their tracks)  >:(  

That's just sad, but attacks like this are pretty much common now, the fact that there's a long process before you can actually 50/50 percentage recover your wallet and money, it's quite a long process but I'll definitely do the same if I was in OP's shoes.

OMG I can't tell her that. It will be too much to bear
All this could have been avoid if she learnt about Bitcoin for herself.
As mentioned, police involvement is critical in extracting the kyc documents from the exchange. We are pressuring the police to act on the evidence and communicate with the exchange to investigate the account holders.
A mail has been drafted to legal@binance.com

What do you mean by "The scammers bought bitcoins from her account and sent her bank account to hell. She was forced to change bank accounts."?
Does she voluntarily let the scammers to buy Bitcoins by using her bank account or she sent them fiat money?Was her bank account hacked?This is confusing.
So you way that she(or the scammers) used fiat money to buy Bitcoin.
There's hope in this case,because there's a possibility that the initial bank transaction can be refunded.
Banks are usually slow at processing such chargeback cases,but they usually decide the case in favor of their customers.
Bitcoin chargeback companies do not exist,because Bitcoin transactions cannot be refunded.
This "crypto chargeback company" in New Jersey is a joke.

 

It's very astonishing how well we can track the scammers and where the funds went. Via IP adresses there might be a chance to find out where the scammers come from and maybe even a name or company behind. But only if they are based in a country with a strong legal framework there would be a chance to get the money back. If the hackers are based in China or Russia I don't think we have a chance to get the money back. Also the coins where transferred very quickly, so going to the exchange and claiming that we got hacked won't help much.
I find it very sad that there are still so many scammers out there in 2021 and we have almost no chance of getting our money back. There needs to be a some kind of international supervision on the Internet that helps people who lost money. A Internet police that fights back against these criminal would be awesome. If every country just gives a few million than there could easily be some independent international agency that tracks scammers and hackers and works with national police to get them arrested. The world today is probably too divided to get it done.

I wish I could say yes, but unfortunately, there is no way of getting your lost bitcoin back. A bitcoin once lost is lost forever. And if you try to find a way to get it back, you will probably be scammed again.

After every dip BTC got pump and breaked all records of its old records and this time it will also use same strategy. Because it is best coin believed in Cryptocurrency and it will pump in some of weeks.

I have been scammed by the same btc address but I'm not comfortable to send my contact information on this thread.

Not a recovery specialist or anything like that. I tried to send you a pm, but it wouldn't let me because I'm brand new. I would like to know if our stories match. I know my account is new, but I googled searched the btc address and seen your images and it sent me here.

Try to pm me or if you can lift that newbie pm restrictions. I'm willing to help. I have some intel different than the blockchain forensics. I'm in NJ btw too.

???

OP didn't even write those address, how can you googled the BTC address and directed to this forum? Smell fishy here. It's impossible google could read images and transform it to text. If you want to discuss or update new information, better to share it here otherwise you're very likely a scammer.

According to my understanding, every outgoing transaction cannot restore lost assets, so to avoid a second occurrence, make sure to sell assets in crypto that has strong legality or a trusted market. lots of people get scammed because they ignore account security by idly entering into crypto that doesn't have strong legality.

my belief is only based on bitcoin users who are currently still minimal, so there are still many opportunities to always print new ath. but it is indeed a difficult time to predict, the more new investors come in the more the price will increase as the demand for bitcoin increases.

Already registered in my head as a scammer. I wasn't even going to give the satisfaction of responding. Thank goodness newbies are restricted from sending pms I would have been a target by scammers

"It's impossible google could read images and transform it to text."

It is possible. This is a new feature. Even your photos in "Google images" are converted to text and you can search for text in images.

I googled 1Agp6hLhVhEwZ9px4LZrqN2j8PoW9vPUGR then I clicked images. You're the second image from the left and I noticed the BTC address. I saw the web address bitcointalk.org.

Of course, the first thing in your head is that I'm a scammer. I would be skeptical too. I really don't want to send the BTC address because it shows how much I gave to the scammer but whatever. I'll show it, there is some good people on the internet just not much.

I sent my bitcoin to this address https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1NyTNnktvKztA6LvsJX8dVyC6NxBxXbRQy. I sent it on 9/17/21. On Monday 9/20/21 they sent the funds to two BTC address (binace exchange) 1Agp6hLhVhEwZ9px4LZrqN2j8PoW9vPUGR & bc1qp2k85kyn357ysu0hlskeqpvrdnkgurxmke07c4 (Coinbase exchange).

This was my "withdrawal fee" and now they tell me I have to pay my recruiter. My recruiter fee is 5% of my active balance. Yes, I get it, why would you do that? Why did you believe them? They actually sent me $100 (I wish I asked for more). You can withdrawal out of your account without a withdrawal fee. So, I was sold, I took it as it was legit. Why would a scammer send me money? There's is a lot more to my story. I just don't want to post the entire thing so the pubic can view it.

I posted this on Reddit a while back also https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/przjvh/adfx_trading_scam/

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Read my last post & test it for yourself.

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

She didn’t do her research before investing in that company? This is the kind of issues that leads people to generally believe bitcoin (cryptocurrencies) are scams, which is really bad. They fail to do their research and later when they are scammed, they think that crypto investment is a scam, while they were the ones that gave their money to scammers, due to ignorance or lack of knowledge.

Once you lose your cryptocurrency there is no way that you’re going to be able to recover it. Although you can still give it a try, and further see if there can be a way for you to track it to an exchange? Because I can see that the address there is showing that it is on Binance? So, how about you dig further and check if you can be able to get their identity.

I found this article to give some light/hope on this. It seems these Blockchain forensics companies who are legit help out law enforcement or big corporations whom probably lost millions in crypto. There is a chance just maybe not a big chance.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/irs-seized-35-b-in-crypto-related-fraud-cases-this-year-as-illicit-activity-multiplies-150407019.html

You're correct on this. It's a surprise how OP's relative allowed herself to be beaten twice. However, even OP left out what should be the most integral part of the whole ordeal – How much was scammed from her relative. I guess the amount involved would be what should decide whether to pursue the case further or just leave it there and move on with lesson learnt. There are several ways we learn. It could be from stuff happening directly to us or stuff happening to others and we pick our lessons from that.

You both are off topic. Bitcoin price is nor the discussion here. Seems to me you didn't read OP to know what sort of discussion we are having in the first place. The thread isn't even long enough to be invaded with spam. Please read the thread before responding
The amount scammed was $30k. I don't know how much was paid to the charge back company.
Mpamaegbu, you're correct I learnt from her mistake. No one can fool me to give away my hard earned money. It won't work.

Ouch! That's really huge an amount of money to lose. I'm already doing a mental calculation what that amount can buy in my local fiat. It's a hard lesson to learn, both for your relative and every other person here. However, I won't be flummoxed to later read here that someone else falls for the same trick. We've to be careful this day. The case deserves to be pursued but that will be if the victim knows how to really go about it. I wish her luck.

Why don't you believe this happens to other people? Happens everyday.

I do not think it is possible to retrieve bitcoin once it is stolen by hackers. I do not think complaints will be very fruitful.

in the midst of the downturn in bitcoin that we are experiencing right now, of course, all miners will also feel worried about what is happening at this time we as miners really hope that bitcoin can return to stability like a few years before where the price of bitcoin could reach such a high price but in contrast to now we really hope that this is only temporary and the price returns to its highest peak as it ever happened

what the hell are you talking about? did you even read the original post? the thread has nothing to do with the bitcoin's price and its current dip. if you read the thread you'll understand that the OP was asking whether there is a chance to recover the money/bitcoin that was scammed from her relative. I know the title might have misled you especially when the price of bitcoin dropped. but it is always important to read the thread to at least understand what the OP is talking or asking about.

How did your close relative got scammed? In any way, did he give his personal information such as his pin on her bank account? If I understood it correctly, the hackers purchased investment coins on his behalf and he was forced to change bank accounts after the incident. Then, he found out that the investments purchased were not genuine and his money were all gone. Am i right? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Foremost, what your close relative should do is to take legal actions if he really want to take his money back. He should file legal action so that the platform would do security measures to background check the transactions made and to possibly trace the hackers' information and transactions. Otherwise, consider his money gone. The moment he got scammed and robbed, he should've taken an action. I hope it's still not too late. Once he have raised his concern, all he got to do is to secure his accounts and wait for the verdict. Because as we know, as a part of data and privacy act, they cannot disclose any information despite of how grave your complaint was. It is still needed to undergo due process and investigation. Next time, i hope this won't happen again. May he take this as a charge to experience so that he won't be a victim of such unfortunate event once more in the future. Keep us posted on the findings.

Thank you for visiting this thread and contributing to help my case. I am locking the thread to prevent spammers from taking over.