One BTC stolen through support scam

[megasquirrel]

I totally fell for a support scam. It was a lifechanging amount of money so I'd like to do what I can to recover it. I notified law enforcement and opened a case with AMLbot. I also saw that I can notify the exchange to freeze the assets and monitor the perpetrators. Sounds like a longshot but figure I may as well try.

• The fraudulent BTC transaction was sent to bc1qge5lx47h02ka860fz38pg0fuk0pv3cqs64pcdz
  
• The Hash ID is 3cf029e7ecb37ab3a11081621ad068b8120fb44b3ea3128f1d864c86acc21c49
  
• My BTC address is bc1qhhl956eqx842zegaw5a00em9n79e3ms6rym04e

Would appreciate any advice/help from this community. Please let me know if there are next steps from here. Thank you.

[Little Mouse]

Not sure if you will get back this. But don't fall for again now. Since that you posted here, some scammer may reach to you and ask for payment for helping you.

[Stalker22]

I totally fell for a support scam.
~

Could you tell us more about the scam itself?  You mentioned it was a support scam.  What exactly did they do to trick you?  Sharing the details could help others not fall for the same thing.

Good luck!

[sokani]

Would appreciate any advice/help from this community. Please let me know if there are next steps from here. Thank you.

I'm not sure if you'll recover your Bitcoin back. But since you've reported the case to the authorities, if the scammer should send the stolen Bitcoin to a centralised exchange where he has KYC'ed, his identity will be known and he will be apprehended. Maybe that will bring you a little comfort.

[coupable]

• The fraudulent BTC transaction was sent to bc1qge5lx47h02ka860fz38pg0fuk0pv3cqs64pcdz
  
• The Hash ID is 3cf029e7ecb37ab3a11081621ad068b8120fb44b3ea3128f1d864c86acc21c49
  
• My BTC address is bc1qhhl956eqx842zegaw5a00em9n79e3ms6rym04e

Would appreciate any advice/help from this community. Please let me know if there are next steps from here. Thank you.

You have' already report the scam to the authorities and this is all what you can do in this space. But first we want to know the full story with all the evidences since you have as well posted the transaction details. By posting the detailed story, you help community not to fall victim in the same way as yours, and for others to know how to better guide you. No one can help you because you only post a transaction hash.

Would appreciate any advice/help from this community. Please let me know if there are next steps from here. Thank you.

I'm not sure if you'll recover your Bitcoin back. But since you've reported the case to the authorities, if the scammer should send the stolen Bitcoin to a centralised exchange where he has KYC'ed, his identity will be known and he will be apprehended. Maybe that will bring you a little comfort.

I don't expect a naive scammer who may go to centralized exchangers to uncover his identity is able to scam someone 1 btc.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

Could you tell us more about the scam itself?  You mentioned it was a support scam.  What exactly did they do to trick you?  Sharing the details could help others not fall for the same thing

Without more information from OP, a common support scam is from impersonators who create fake accounts of customer support staffs, admins in Telegram, Discord and wait for users like OP to join with support request. Scammers will use their impersonating accounts, DM first to the user and give offer to help.

Then unfortunately they will make request related to money, wallet mnemonic seed or account information so that they can access wallets, accounts and withdraw coins of the users.

[PrivacyG]

Your chances to recover are slim but it is worth trying it out.  In the mean while do not despair.  Think of ways you can build the wealth back.  The story of many millionaires and billionaires include a point where they went poor all of a sudden.  You can be the next story.

If you can keep a track of where the Bitcoin is going then it may be a good idea to notify as many Exchanges as possible.  I do not know what the policy of Exchanges is but I imagine there is a chance they will black list the UTXO before the thieves even get to deposit the Bitcoin any where.

Good luck.

[tabas]

I am very sorry OP but transactions are irreversible and it's unlikely that a scammer will refund any money that they've stolen from their victims. The only hope that you can have is to have that faith in that scammer to return it voluntarily, other than that there is no way for you to get it back. Even if you report that to the police, there's no way for them to retrieve it as it's the same that they'd say. But not gonna hurt to try if you want to.

[Doan9269]

Except if the exchange in use that performed the transaction will block the user account, so it could have been more helpful if at all those being contacted are the exchange first over suspicious alert, also, what if the user has this money kept on a non custodial wallet and he's not ready to change it to fiat except by mixing or something related, that is why I often do advise that we should not wait until we are caught up before knowing what to do in preventing anything that has to do with our digital asset, because we know to recover them may never be possible even if your traced every single moves of how the money is being set, crypto transactions don't works like bank fiat transactions.

[reagansimms]

When you use the word "Scam" it is very common, but you don't reveal in detail how it happens. You just explained it was a customer support scam, then how did it happen that you lost 1 Bitcoin.
I'm a little pessimistic that your Bitcoin will be returned, I hope your efforts to uncover where the Bitcoin went will bear fruit and the perpetrator will be found soon. I think the details of the incident need to be described here to help other users avoid the same incident.

[Yaunfitda]

I totally fell for a support scam. It was a lifechanging amount of money so I'd like to do what I can to recover it. I notified law enforcement and opened a case with AMLbot. I also saw that I can notify the exchange to freeze the assets and monitor the perpetrators. Sounds like a longshot but figure I may as well try.

• The fraudulent BTC transaction was sent to bc1qge5lx47h02ka860fz38pg0fuk0pv3cqs64pcdz
  
• The Hash ID is 3cf029e7ecb37ab3a11081621ad068b8120fb44b3ea3128f1d864c86acc21c49
  
• My BTC address is bc1qhhl956eqx842zegaw5a00em9n79e3ms6rym04e

Would appreciate any advice/help from this community. Please let me know if there are next steps from here. Thank you.

Unfortunately, we can't do anything about it as we all know that addresses doesn't have a name. But in any case that you have notify law enforcement already then it's on their backyard now. I know it's very hard to lose that kind of amount. As someone asked, how to do fell for that trap? We wanted to know so that it have a idea and not be the next victim of this scam. Yeah, it was a long shot, but it's better than doing nothing. Best of luck to you.

[Z-tight]

The only hope that you can have is to have that faith in that scammer to return it voluntarily, other than that there is no way for you to get it back.

Lol, are you kidding me. No scammer would return stolen funds voluntarily. Except they enter a deal with their victim to keep a certain percent of the stolen funds and return the rest, 'white hat hacking'. But that is usually in situations of a huge heist, and involving big services like exchanges, don't think that is possibe in op's case.

However, op has not been online since they made this thread. It would be nice if they posted updates on their case or add more information on how they were scammed, though i can imagine how distraught the op will be.

[joniboini]

No scammer would return stolen funds voluntarily.

I think that's just a figure of speech, as in the chance for everything to work is so low that you might as well hope the scammer got an enlightenment and return the money for you. I don't think they expect that to actually happen.

Safe to assume that OP is probably trying to post similar messages on other social media, considering that he went offline right away after making this thread.

[EarnOnVictor]

Would appreciate any advice/help from this community. Please let me know if there are next steps from here. Thank you.

Truth be told, this is Bitcoin, and it's decentralised. There is little one can do in this case, you just need to be more careful next time. As we await you to furnish further information, as some people have request, I tell you that this coin may not be retrievable anymore by virtue of Bitcoin's nature.

If you are lucky, they might move it to a centralised exchange, which is highly unlikely. If they make the mistake and you contacted the exchange before it's too late, there could be hope. But I doubt that, because such money might be mixed before proceeding with such a transaction.

However, be very careful with all the so-called recovery agent, especially those that are being posted on review sites, to avoid being scammed the second time.

[PX-Z]

I totally fell for a support scam. It was a lifechanging amount of money so I'd like to do what I can to recover it. I notified law enforcement and opened a case with AMLbot. I also saw that I can notify the exchange to freeze the assets and monitor the perpetrators. Sounds like a longshot but figure I may as well try.

...
Would appreciate any advice/help from this community. Please let me know if there are next steps from here. Thank you.

People would be glad to know how the scam happen and what they did for you to send that amount to them, i know this might be  related phishing site but from a support? Or does it mean the support you talk with is fake as well.

[Lucius]

Without more information from OP, a common support scam is from impersonators who create fake accounts of customer support staffs, admins in Telegram, Discord and wait for users like OP to join with support request. Scammers will use their impersonating accounts, DM first to the user and give offer to help.

Then unfortunately they will make request related to money, wallet mnemonic seed or account information so that they can access wallets, accounts and withdraw coins of the users.

I have no doubt that you are right about how the OP lost his coins, because it has actually become a very lucrative business that a lot of people are involved in. Fortunately for them, there are quite a few who invest in cryptocurrencies without realizing how sensitive the information they possess is.

Most of us were taught not to talk to strangers when we were children, and this should be applied to adulthood as well - don't communicate with strangers via social networks about things you shouldn't talk about.

[robelneo]

Would appreciate any advice/help from this community. Please let me know if there are next steps from here. Thank you.

The best place to post your issue is the Scam Accusations board

Complete the details of what happened by following Scam Report Format

We can paint the whole picture by fleshing out the details of your accusation.

But by posting all the details, we can warn people from falling into this scheme.