Fraud investigator—should you hire one after falling victim to a scam such as forex or cryptocurrency? Or is it a waste of money?
The answer is simple: a fraud investigator can be worth it if you’ve lost significant amounts(say $5,000) to a fraudster. After all, doing nothing about your situation means letting the fraudster go away with your money scot-free. On the contrary, initiating an investigation opens the possibility of recovering your money.
In my experience, I’ve seen many forex and crypto scammers tracked down, apprehended, and prosecuted. Many of these successful outcomes started with the victim(s) engaging the services of a legitimate scam recovery professional.
A good example is the infamous group of call-center scammers from the Republic of Georgia. Posing as professional crypto experts, these fraudsters comprising about 85 individuals scammed over 6100 victims,(including Canadian residents) of over $35 million between 2022 and February 2025. Following the efforts of Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a private, non-profit investigative journalism organization, the real identities of these masterminds have recently been uncovered.
This is a major breakthrough that will now enable authorities to go after them and ultimately bring them to justice. Victims who lost their money will have hope of recovering their funds, which will come from the group’s frozen assets.
Had there been no investigations initiated since “scam recovery services” are just another scam as you’ve been constantly misled to believe, these scammers would have remained unchecked, operating with impunity. Their victims would have no hope of ever recovering their funds, on the contrary.
We want you to understand that while there are many fraudsters falsely posing as fraud investigators, professionals with legitimate recovery skills also exist.
How a Fraud Investigator Helps Forex, Crypto, Stock, and CFD Scam Victims
Scammers use many different deceptive tactics to defraud unsuspecting investors.
Fortunately, a legitimate fraud expert possesses the necessary skills and resources to counter them.
1. Unmasking Fake Brokers
Many fraudulent brokers operate with fictitious identities to avoid getting tracked down and apprehended by law enforcement authorities.
A competent fraud investigator has the necessary skills and resources to unmask such brokers.
For example, in the above case, the investigator has recently unmasked the true identities of the fraudsters. We hope to see breaking news of arrests soon—keep watching the news.
2. Asset Recovery
Almost all online scams culminate with the victim losing traditional money or cryptocurrency.
Notably, digital currency scams are harder to trace due to the anonymous nature of the crypto infrastructure.
However, a savvy fraud investigator can help recover stolen money or cryptocurrency using forensic technologies best known to industry professionals. When they are unable to trace crypto transactions, they may resort to tracking down the masterminds and ultimately having the police arrest them. Thereafter, victims can recover their assets.
3. Chargeback Assistance for CFD and Forex Scams
Funds lost through credit card deposits are the easiest to recover.
A fraud investigator can file a chargeback request for you, increasing your chances of recovering your funds through your credit card provider.
Many credit card providers have a chargeback policy, allowing customers to dispute fraudulent transactions within 60 to 120 days from the date of the transaction, and potentially get their money refunded.
The funds are normally reversed from the scammer’s bank account and returned to the victim.
Interestingly, some bank accounts may hold a reserve fund for financial services providers. This means that even if the scammer quickly withdraws your money and empties their bank account, you can still get refunded from a portion of their reserved funds.
Even if the scammer registered their bank account as a private individual instead of a merchant as required by most banks, these financial institutions have ways of detecting the deception. As such, the account holder will ultimately have to update their account to that of a merchant.
Key takeway: Always make deposits through your credit card, especially when dealing with merchants or financial services providers you don’t trust. It makes recovery easier in the event of a scam.
4. Legal and Regulatory Support
An honest fraud investigator works with various industry players including financial regulatory authorities and law enforcement authorities. This broad collaboration ensures that fraudsters are detected, reported, tracked down, apprehended, and ultimately prosecuted.
As such, they are the go-to professionals for those who need help with submitting formal complaints to the police, financial services regulators, banks, or legal professionals.
Signs You Need a Fraud Investigator
Here are some red flags indicating you’ve been involved with an illicit broker and need immediate help from a fraud expert:
- You cannot withdraw your funds from a trading account for no apparent reason.
- The broker demands additional “fees” or “taxes” before processing withdrawals. N/B: Avoid making any further payments even if the scammer claims it’s necessary for withdrawals.
- They suddenly disappear or stop responding.
The Significance Of Choosing the Right Fraud Investigator
Finding the right scam recovery expert is the first step toward recovering funds lost to a forex, cryptocurrency, or stock trading scam.
Unfortunately, since scam recovery is in high demand(due to the large number of scam victims), it has also attracted fraudsters.
Consequently, there are more fake recovery experts than legitimate ones.
This might be the reason why law enforcement authorities and financial regulatory agencies often issue blanket warnings that scam recovery services are just another scam.
But that shouldn’t be the case, as there are legitimate professionals who can truly help.
The key is knowing how to find the right one.
Qualities of a Reliable Fraud Investigator
1. Has a Successful History of Handling Online Scam Cases
Confirm these qualities by checking for the professional’s reputation, case success rates, and client testimonials on business review platforms. The Better Business Bureau(BBB), Sitejabber, and Trustpilot are good places to start.
2. A Good Fraud Investigator Possesses the Necessary Qualifications
Fraud investigation is a profession that requires certain academic skills.
To become a fraud investigator, one needs to go to school and earn the right credentials.
Notably, the credentials must be issued by a recognized body such as the Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists (ACFCS). The ACFE is another body that qualifies fraud investigation experts. It is the world’s largest anti-fraud organization and it issues the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) certificate.
3. Upholds The Highest Level Of Transparency
You can tell whether a professional is highly transparent or not in many ways. For example, how clearly they give their explanations about their recovery processes & procedures, alongside their fees is a good starting point.
4. A Trustworthy Fraud Investigator Has Professional Connections
Scam investigation is a complex and highly collaborative field. It often requires collaboration with legal professionals, financial institutions, law enforcement authorities, and regulatory agencies.
A good scam recovery expert has these professional connections.
You can tell that by looking at some of the investigations they have conducted in the past and whether they were able to bring in these professionals or not.
On the contrary, a professional who doesn’t have these connections is a big red flag. You need to avoid engaging the services of such.
Steps to Take Before Hiring a Fraud Investigator
Fallen victim to a dubious broker? Here are the steps you need to take to boost your chances of recovering your funds:
1. Gather all evidence and have them ready.
All those WhatsApp messages and emails that the scammer sent will be useful at this point. So will be those transaction records you might have stored on your device. Gather all these pieces of evidence and make them ready when needed.
2. Do thorough due diligence on the fraud investigator you are about to hire.
Make sure the professional you engage has experience investigating similar cases of scams.
3. File a complaint with the relevant financial regulator to establish an official case record.
You may find your regulator on this list.
4. Consult the fraud expert.
After completing the above steps, reach out to the investigator, discuss your case, and negotiate the terms of engagement.
Final Thoughts
Many people underestimate the value a fraud investigator can bring to a scam recovery case.
These professionals not only can help track fraudulent transactions, but they can also help track down scammers and initiate an investigation on a regulatory level.
Their services can increase the likelihood of recovering your money.
Unfortunately, law enforcement agencies and top industry regulators have consistently cast a blanket judgment that scam recovery services are another scam.
Yet the alternatives they recommend are often not so effective.
For example, reporting the cases to the police usually doesn’t result in sufficient action.
Many police departments are not properly equipped with the necessary skills and resources to pursue sophisticated internet scammers.
The law enforcement agencies that can, such as Interpol, the FBI, and the Secret Service, normally don’t bother with cases where the amounts lost are not deemed significant.
Yet, every victim deserves help.
If scam recovery services were just another scam, the identities of the Georgian group of cryptocurrency scammers would have not been uncovered.
Let’s shun the negative stereotype that all scam recovery professionals are scammers and accept the fact that every profession has rogue elements. That doesn’t imply that the entire profession is a scam.
Report A Scam
Have you lost funds to a scammer? Go to this page, or email scamread@scamreader.info to report the case and seek help.