Your Money Matters
If you have fallen victim to a romance fraudster, a scammer or a sextortion racket it is important not to feel isolated, humiliated or embarrassed – fraudsters are very good at manipulating people, they frequently operate in very large groups with many years of experience. It literally can happen to anyone.
Did you know that in 2023 alone 57,000 Americans were Scammed for over $638.6 million by fraudsters, not only have these victims been left out of pocket, but they’ve also been left humiliated, frightened, and heartbroken. Additionally, in the FBI’s 2022 IC3 report, it highlighted a 183 percent increase in the amount lost to crypto investment scams – a massive $2.57 billion in 2022 alone.
As a private investigator, I have taken on many cases from business fraud and crypto investment scams through to romance fraud, with victims having lost amounts varying between £15,000 and £1.2 million. Usually we can trace the scammer, but recovering funds can be difficult, particularly if the scammer is in a country which does not have a mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) in place with the country that their victim resides in.

Have you just transferred money to a fraudster? If you have literally sent money today or within the last few hours or so then call your bank immediately as they may be able to stop the transaction. Stop reading this and go call your bank now, ask to speak to their fraud team.
Make sure you call the number printed on the back of your credit or debit card and not a phone number in any emails you have received, in case that email was faked by the fraudster and has their number instead.
If you have lost money to a fraudster then I’m afraid that there is no simple answer when it comes to recovering your funds. These are the steps you should take and with each is some additional detail about what can be tried. (I am based in the UK, so much of this information will apply to UK residents and regulations, but other countries may have similar solutions.)
1] Has the fraudster had remote access to your computer? If so turn it off immediately, or turn your Internet/WiFi router off to stop the computer from connecting to the Internet. (An IT professional will need to examine your computer to remove the remote access app and any other backdoor/viruses the fraudster may have installed).
2] Phone your bank – the bank you used to send the money – and speak to their fraud team right away. Use the phone number printed on the back of your credit or debit card. Tell the fraud team what has happened and ask them to try and stop the payment going through. (see below regarding APP fraud and the Contingent Reimbursement Model).
3] Inform the police. Realistically the police won’t be able to do an awful lot at this stage but it is an important step in this process. If you have fraud insurance cover (see 4 below) then you will need a crime reference number from the police to go with your insurance claim. Make sure you call your local police department directly or dial 101, and not the emergency services phone number (999/911 etc). The police will give you a crime reference number and will more than likely ask you to report it to Action Fraud if you are in the UK https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/reporting-fraud-and-cyber-crime
Another good reason to inform the police of the crime is that if the fraudster(s) are caught some point in the future and some or all of the funds are recovered by the authorities, the funds could be returned back to their victims.
4] Do you have insurance that covers losses due to fraud? If so call the insurance provider and tell them exactly what has happened. Note: most home insurance policies don’t include fraud or cyber crime cover by default. Business insurance often does include cyber crime cover, and if you are a business who is certified under the UK’s Cyber Essentials scheme, then you probably took the free cyber insurance as part of that scheme.
5] Sign up for a free credit monitoring service: The fraudster may now have your bank details or card details, they more than likely have your name and contact detail too. This could be enough for them to try and take out loans or apply for credit cards in your name. Signing up for a free credit monitoring service is a good way to help you keep a look out for anything like this. Some examples of companies offering free credit monitoring services are Experian and Credit Karma
What Can You Try To Get Your Money Back?
I don’t want to say ‘and now wait to hear from your bank, the police and insurance company’, but that’s more or less where things stand at this point. However there are things which you can do that may help;
Chase your bank, and keep chasing your bank. It can take them 30 days to come back to you regarding the initial part of their investigation, but if they were able to stop the payment going through then you should hear back the same day or following day.

If you sent the money via your bank, it is known as Authorised Push Payment fraud (APP). In the UK there is the Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM), which is designed to reimburse victims of APP fraud – not all banks have signed up to this initiative yet, but most of the major ones have. In 2022, only two thirds of those making a claim for APP under the CRM were reimbursed, so you may have to keep pushing your bank in relation to this.
Crypto / Bitcoin: If you sent money using Bitcoin or any other crypto currency it is very difficult to recover. Firstly, if you initially transferred the money from your bank to your crypto exchange account, then you should talk to your bank about Authorised Push Payment fraud as that is what it is. Our findings with this is that the bank will say APP doesn’t apply because you sent it from one of your accounts (the bank) to another of your accounts (your account at the crypto exchange). But keep pushing your bank on this as crypto exchanges aren’t signed up to the Contingent Reimbursement Model.
Many types of crypto transactions can be traced easily – the wallet ID’s are publicly visible on the blockchain and you can see where the transaction went and follow its path. However without police involvement there is no way to see who owns those wallets, so I won’t go in to any further detail here as if you are not familiar with blockchain then what you see can be a bit misleading.
If you sent money via PayPal then you should open a dispute with PayPal right away. Make sure to emphasise that you are a victim of crime (fraud) and give them the crime reference number obtained from the police. PayPal can be a bit slow to respond, and you should bear in mind that the fraudster may have been using somebody else’s PayPal account that they have hacked – in which case PayPal might also need pushing hard to get a positive result.
If you sent money via a money transfer service, such as MoneyGram, PayPoint or Western Union then there is really nothing you can do I’m afraid. If the fraudster is ever caught they would more than likely have spent the cash by then. The same applies if you paid them with gift cards, such as the commonly requested iTunes gift card.
Can I Help You as a Private Investigator?
Maybe. My main concern here is cost. At this point you would have lost a significant sum to fraudsters and hiring a private investigator can be expensive. However if the fraud involves significant amounts of money and you would like to find out as much as you can, then we can look at taking on your case.
With about half a day of our time, we can run traces on the scammer(s), look at where your money has gone, etc. and make an assessment as to whether a full-blown investigation would be worthwhile.
Bear in mind that an initial check and trace takes half a day and would be £480 including VAT, and larger investigations can cost several thousand pounds. Specialist Investigations is where you can contact us if you would like us to take a look at your case. It is run by myself and former police detective, Mark Williams-Thomas.