How to report a crypto scammer

Most crypto scams fall into a few recurring patterns. Fake investment platforms show a convincing dashboard with rising balances, encourage small early "profitable" withdrawals to build trust, then block withdrawals once a larger deposit is made. Recruitment often happens through social media, messaging apps or a romantic connection that gradually shifts toward crypto "trading advice" — a pattern sometimes called pig butchering.

Wallet-drainer scams work differently: a victim is lured to a fake token sale, NFT mint, or airdrop claim page and asked to connect their wallet and sign a transaction. The signature can grant the scam contract approval to move tokens or NFTs out of the wallet, sometimes with a single click. Fake customer-support accounts on social platforms, cloned exchange login pages, and fraudulent "recovery" bots promising to restore lost funds are also common variants.

In every case, the underlying mechanism relies on either persuading the victim to send funds voluntarily to an address controlled by the scammer, or persuading them to authorize a transaction that lets a malicious contract pull funds automatically. Understanding which of these happened helps determine what evidence to collect.

The single most useful piece of evidence in a crypto scam is the destination wallet address and the transaction hash (also called a TXID) of each transfer you made. These identifiers let investigators, exchanges and analytics firms trace where funds moved without needing any personal information from you.

You can normally find both in your wallet app or exchange transaction history:

• Open the transaction in your wallet or exchange and copy the "transaction hash" or "TXID".
• Paste that hash into a block explorer for the relevant chain (for example a Bitcoin, Ethereum or other chain explorer) to see the full transaction: sender address, receiver address, amount, network fee and timestamp.
• From the explorer, you can often see whether the receiving address forwarded funds onward to another address or into an exchange deposit wallet — useful context, though not something you need to trace yourself.
• Record the full receiving address exactly as shown, the chain/network it is on, the amount, and the date and time.

Screenshot the explorer page as well as your own wallet history, since some pages change or become unavailable over time.

If you sent crypto from a centralized exchange account (rather than directly from a private wallet), contact that exchange's support or fraud/security team as soon as possible. Provide the transaction hash, destination address, date and amount, and explain that you believe you were scammed. Some exchanges maintain internal flags for known scam addresses and can alert the receiving exchange if the funds land in another custodial account, but they cannot themselves reverse a completed on-chain transfer.

If the scammer's receiving address is itself hosted at an exchange (visible on a block explorer as a labeled deposit address), you can also try contacting that exchange's fraud desk directly with the transaction hash — some will freeze funds still sitting in that account pending a law enforcement request, though this is not guaranteed and depends on the funds not having already been moved or converted.

It is important to be realistic about what a "freeze" request can achieve. Blockchain transfers themselves are final and cannot be undone by any company or authority. What can sometimes happen is that a custodial platform (an exchange, payment processor, or hosted wallet) freezes funds that are still sitting in an account it controls, if it receives a credible fraud report or a formal request from law enforcement before the funds are withdrawn or converted elsewhere.

Speed matters: the earlier you report to the receiving platform and to the authorities, the more likely funds are still in a traceable, controlled account. Once funds pass through several wallets, are converted between chains, or are cashed out, freezing becomes far less likely. Fraudpol does not promise, and cannot guarantee, that any funds will be frozen or recovered.

Filing an official report creates a formal record and may be required by your bank, exchange or insurer, and can support any later law enforcement action. Depending on where you live:

• United States: file a complaint with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), and consider also notifying the CFTC or SEC if the scam involved a fake investment or trading platform.
• United Kingdom: report to Action Fraud, the UK's national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime.
• Other countries: most national police forces operate an online fraud or cybercrime reporting portal; search for your country's official cybercrime or economic-crime reporting service and file through the official government site.

These bodies are the ones with legal authority to investigate, request records from exchanges under compulsory process, and pursue prosecution. Fraudpol is not a government agency or law enforcement body and cannot substitute for a police report; it refers the cases it reviews to the competent authorities.

Several blockchain analytics companies and community-run scam-tracking sites accept reports of scam wallet addresses and can add them to shared blocklists that some exchanges and wallets check against. Reporting an address there does not recover funds, but it can help warn other users away from the same address. If the scam involved a specific token, you can also notify the project team behind that token, since some maintain their own abuse-reporting channels.

If the scam was promoted through a fake profile or group, also report that account directly to the platform. See our guides on how to report a Telegram scammer and how to report an Instagram scammer for platform-specific steps, and our general guide to reporting a scammer.

• Wallet addresses used to send and receive funds, and the address you were told to send to.
• Transaction hashes for every transfer, plus block-explorer screenshots.
• Screenshots of the platform, app or chat where you were persuaded to send funds.
• Usernames, phone numbers, email addresses or social media profiles used to contact you.
• Any promotional material, whitepapers or "return" screenshots shown to you.
• Bank or card statements if fiat currency was used to buy the crypto that was then sent on.

Keep this material organized with dates, since a clear, chronological record is far more useful to any reviewing party than scattered screenshots. If a "recovery expert" contacts you afterward offering to retrieve your funds for an upfront fee, treat it as a separate scam — read our guide on recovery scams before responding to anyone in this position.

When you submit a report to Fraudpol involving cryptocurrency, wallet addresses and transaction hashes serve as case identifiers rather than personal data. A trained staff member manually reviews the submission, examines the addresses and any linked infrastructure such as fake websites or social accounts used in the scheme, and compiles findings into a case file.

Where appropriate, Fraudpol sends reports and takedown requests to the hosting providers, exchanges or platforms connected to the scam infrastructure, and refers the underlying case to the competent law enforcement or regulatory authorities. Fraudpol does not recover money, never charges victims a fee to attempt fund recovery, and never contacts victims unsolicited asking for payment. It is not a government agency or law enforcement body, and it does not publish or describe individual cases publicly.

If you believe you have identified the individual or group behind a crypto scam, you can report a scammer to Fraudpol along with the wallet addresses, transaction hashes and any other evidence you have gathered.

Last checked: September 2026.

• IC3.gov complaint form (FBI)
• ReportFraud.ftc.gov (FTC)
• Action Fraud: how to report fraud and cyber crime