Crypto recovery services scam

[Charles-Tim]

There are many organizations in this modern age that specifically providing Bitcoin and other crypto asset recovery services, but most turned out to be scam. There has been many people that complained using online recovery services after their wallet was hijack or Bitcoin stolen from them, in which they were later scammed the by the recovery service provider. Before help can be rendered by these organizations, the victim will have to pay certain amount of bitcoin or money, this makes the field attractive for scammers as a haven to scam.

I was wondering how bitcoin sent to scammers can be recovered when transaction are not reversible when confirmed, or how victim will send Bitcoin or altcoin to hackers to recover back devices under malware attack. This even has been used by hackers to shot down office equipments like hospital in which ransom will be demanded for the offices to be able to access their equipments under ransomware attacks. How will Bitcoin or altcoin be recovered when transaction is confirmed already while the scammers will even wait longer enough to have more confirmations before the ransomware removal.

But, I think there are cases recovery services might be useful, like a damaged computer which contain the wallet without any offline backup. This case, recovery service can be used. They will be able to get into the computer to know if there are ways they can extract out the wallet into another device. Some would have been successful but many remian unsuccessful which would likely be unsuccessful forever. In this case, the Bitcoin or money that can be demanded for by the recovery services will be very costly in total, which means it will be useful for those that have thousands or millions worth of crypto to recover, otherwise, it will not be useful.

So, the questions is, are their lists of legit recovery services for the above case purpose?

Furthermore, prevention is better than cure. Wallet backup are very necessary, this can be wallet file, private key and seed phrase backup, and if passphrase is enabled, it also need backup. There are good ways to back up the these private information. It can be written on paper, laminated paper, metalic sheet, triplicating it and be stored in different locations not accessible to attackers and not vulnerable to damages. Or, seed phrase storage can be bought.

Store your bitcoin seed / private key safely (Water, Fire, Shock-proof

There has been several cases of recovery services scam in which the scammed victim will be scammed again, secondly by the fake recovery service provider. So that is why we need to be careful, using a legit wallet and other legit service, know about crypto field very well, knowing how to protect yourselves from scam.

From the reputed members, I will like you to answer the question above.

More threads about how to protect oneself from crypto scam rather than depending on recovery services
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5235930.msg54107672#msg54107672
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5232577.msg54021683#msg54021683
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5280274.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5312045.0
https://notyourkeys.org/
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5190776.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2828437.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5231368.msg53990969#msg53990969
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5230920.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5229148.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5254941.0

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[Wingsbtc]

Lol, the fact is once you send out your coins to unknown address they are gone, you aren't getting them back and if a organization promised you that they will get them back you will end up losing even more money because they won't do it for free and they won't get the coins back after you paid them

[KaratX]

Using any services like this still shows that one doesn't understand what crypto is about and how it works, once you sent your assets to another wallet that you have no access to it's gone forever, there is no way to get them back unless you can turn back the hands of time

[pooya87]

In case of "damaged computer" or wallets etc. I personally wouldn't even trust the trustworthy third party recovery services with my money if some day I needed such services. When it comes to money, specially such as valuable form of money as bitcoin, people have to rely on themselves and trust nobody else.
Fortunately there are enough open source software out there that can be used by the users themselves to recover their lost bitcoins and if they dedicate enough time they can all do it on their own. There are also lots of experts on different forums including this place, reddit and stackexchange who are willing to help for free without needing access to any sensitive information.

[hugeblack]

I don't think all services are Scam but the user should know who can help him and who cannot.
Bitcoin is based on UTXO, which means that if the recovery service is legitimate, placing an amount in the escrow will ensure that the user will not scammed you because when anyone starts spending coins, the transfers will appear in the blockchain.

One of the popular currency recovery services here^[1] have been operating for some time but they have some terms and high fees.

Finally, (DYOR),  Not your keys, Not your coins and understand that you are at risk of losing your money even if the service is reliable.

[1] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=130960

[Quidat]

In case of "damaged computer" or wallets etc. I personally wouldn't even trust the trustworthy third party recovery services with my money if some day I needed such services. When it comes to money, specially such as valuable form of money as bitcoin, people have to rely on themselves and trust nobody else.
Fortunately there are enough open source software out there that can be used by the users themselves to recover their lost bitcoins and if they dedicate enough time they can all do it on their own. There are also lots of experts on different forums including this place, reddit and stackexchange who are willing to help for free without needing access to any sensitive information.

I wouldnt really trust any recovery services neither on physical or online ones because once those keys or sensitive information
had been exposed then there are always the tendency for those funds to get hacked or lost or be stolen by those people itself.
Im not really that confident unless if you are really on that desperate situation about recovery then its up to your own choice.
There are some various services which does have some feedbacks to be legit and its up to your if you do deal with that
or just simply let those coins sit into that lost wallet forever.

[sheenshane]

When a person loses his coins, he will have to use some services in some cases
If I lose 4 words, I will not be able to access them. If I find a legitimate service and you won't take money from me, I will use it.

It's all based on trust. If you are afraid of losing your money, create a multi-signature wallet and trust people close to you. Otherwise, forget about your coins.

Theoretically, that is 12 words passphrase, if you lose this it will surely hard for you to recover your Bitcoin and it needs to brute force your wallet.  There's nothing you can do is to use a reputable third-party service which is possible there's a chance that your Bitcoin might recover rather than it will be stuck forever in your wallet.

No, that's not based on trust, that's based on service reputations and also the previous history or feedback from their previous clients.  How can you trust a recovery service that you didn't even know in the first place?  Basically, it needs further research for those services that offer recovery service if you didn't up to nothing.

Anyway, thanks for this output OP, I never tried this service yet but IMO, it's really to put trust in someone else.