Can stolen crypto be recovered?
Recover hacked crypto. Skysafeline investigators are regularly contacted by people who have suffered hacked crypto accounts and hacked wallets and want to investigate the crypto hacker. And there is one clear question that everyone wants to know, can stolen crypto be recovered? Whilst there are no guarantees that stolen crypto will be recovered through expert crypto investigations and cryptocurrency tracing services, it is definitely possible to recover hacked crypto.
Previously, through investigating a crypto hacker, our crypto tracing team and blockchain forensic experts managed to freeze over $100,000 USD in a Binance account after our client’s trust wallet was hacked. If you’ve lost crypto to a hack, then responding quickly can make all the difference. With normal investment scam situations, it is unlikely we’ll manage to freeze funds at an exchange in time. Often victims of a traditional investment scam only become aware that they’ve been scammed, well after sending the funds. However, with a hacked wallet or account, if you respond quickly enough and engage Skysafeline to trace your stolen funds, we may be able to freeze the funds before the hacker manages to cash them out.
Can stolen crypto be recovered? Yes. But of course every case is different and whilst we trace crypto successfully over 95% of the time, we can’t guarantee the outcome of the investigation. The point that separates us from our competitors is that we’ll be honest with you as to whether your crypto can be recovered, or not.
How do crypto accounts get hacked?
In our experience, over 95% of the time a hacked crypto account or wallet occurs due to the victim being tricked into releasing their password, seed phrase or private keys. Hacking in general is very difficult and especially if the crypto owner has proper security in place such as using 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) and storing private keys offline. So what commonly happens, is the victim unknowingly releases information which the hacker can then use to steal the crypto. As a type of phishing attack, sometimes these offenders may impersonate a reputable wallet or exchange’s website by launching a clone website. We’ve even seen instances where the offenders run Google Ads, ensuring their fake clone website shows up in Google above the real website! The victim thinks they are dealing with a trusted website which they’ve used many times before. They enter their login details and sometimes even their wallet’s seed phrase, only to soon find out their wallet has been drained.
Of course, there are a plenty of other criminal techniques deployed by those offenders trying to get their hands on your crypto. Including the use of viruses which can infect someone’s computer or mobile device and record sensitive information. And often a hacked account begins with an email phishing attack. A phishing attack is similar to the clone website approach mentioned above. The offenders will commonly email the victim, pretending to be an legitimate entity. The email may even claim that the person’s account on the exchange has been compromised and to ensure the safety of their funds, they need to quickly secure the account. The victim panics, thinking their money is at risk, and as advised in the email they click a link to immediately secure their account. Only to unknowingly hand over access to their cryptocurrencies.
Is it too late to recover hacked crypto?
What if you didn’t realise straight away that your wallet was hacked and the crypto was stolen. Is it too late to recover the funds? No, it is not. We can still investigate a crypto hacker. Whilst we may not be able to freeze the funds at an exchange when the hacker tries to cash out your crypto, we could still manage to identify the offender.
Our cryptocurrency tracing team can trace your stolen crypto and find the exchange the offender has used to exchange your funds back into a fiat (government) currency and get your money into their bank account. We refer to this as the ‘cash-out point’. Once the specific cash-out transaction and exchange is identified, then either Skysafeline investigators or Police can submit a request to the exchange for account holder details. Most crypto exchanges will enforce Know Your Customer (KYC) and will work with a request from law enforcement. The records the exchange holds, could include the hacker’s name, photo ID, email address, phone number and other important data.
If we can identify the hacker, then you can enter the asset recovery stages to try to recover the stolen cryptocurrency!
How to recover stolen cryptocurrency?
First, the crypto needs to be traced. If possible, quick action could mean our team can freeze the funds at an exchange account. If the funds were already exchanged by the hacker, then the hacker needs to be identified before there is any chance of recovering hacked crypto.
Contact Cybertace today to discuss how our team can locate your assets and assist you in recovering your stolen crypto. Our cryptocurrency tracing team will need to be provided with the wallet addresses the crypto was sent to, and every transaction ID (txid) where your cryptocurrency was stolen.