FBI Alert: Fake Law Firms Preying on Crypto Scam Victims—Here’s How to Spot Them
Scammers never sleep—and now they're impersonating lawyers to double-dip on crypto victims. The FBI's latest warning exposes a ruthless new trend in financial fraud.
These phantom firms promise to recover stolen digital assets—for a hefty upfront fee, of course. Victims get ghosted after payment, adding insult to financial injury.
How to dodge the trap:
- Legitimate recovery services never demand payment in crypto or gift cards
- Verify attorney credentials through state bar associations
- The SEC doesn't outsource asset recovery to third parties
Another day, another crypto scam—because apparently traditional finance wasn't predatory enough. Stay skeptical out there.
Bogus law firms
The FBI noted that scammers often win the trust of victims because they have knowledge of the exact amount of funds they lost in the past—and when the wire transfers were made. In some cases, victims are referred to a bogus "crypto recovery law firm" and told to open accounts with foreign banks, but the domain they're directed to is a phishing LINK designed to capture even more of their information.
Further warning signs include victims being told to pay "bank fees" to verify their identity. Scammers also have a reluctance to provide credentials to back up their claims, and won't agree to video meetings.
According to the FBI's advisory, the public should use a "zero trust" model and be wary of firms contacting them out of the blue, ask for photographic evidence of law licenses, and request proof of employment from anyone claiming to be a government employee. Meticulous records of interactions are also recommended.
"Contact with scammers impersonating law firms continues to pose many risks, including the theft of personal data and funds from unsuspecting victims to the reputational harm of actual lawyers being impersonated," the advisory added.
The warning comes after a slew of high-profile bankruptcies left exchange customers waiting years to be reunited with their funds, with opportunistic criminals pretending to be involved in official recovery efforts.
Other crypto scams have Leveraged the images of high-profile individuals such as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Tesla founder Elon Musk, using either carefully-chosen real footage or AI deepfake imagery to convince victims to part with their cryptocurrency. According to a recent report, deepfakes of celebrities, government officials, and other individuals accounted for 40% of "high-value" crypto fraud in 2024.
