From this month's Crypto Hour of Power. Replay below; the summary covers the questions that matter if you've lost crypto and someone is offering to get it back.
This month we sat down with a recovery lawyer to ask the questions people email us every week: can anyone actually get stolen crypto back, what does a lawyer do that a "recovery service" doesn't, and how do you tell professional help from a second scam aimed at people who've already been burned once?
What an honest recovery professional can do
- Trace funds across the chain — movement is public, and professional tracing can follow it to an exchange.
- Freeze and compel through legal process when funds land somewhere with a legal front door — an Australian exchange, a regulated platform overseas.
- Document your loss properly for police, ReportCyber, your bank and (where relevant) your tax position.
What nobody can do
- Reverse a transaction. The chain doesn't undo. Anyone who says they can "recall" or "flag" your transfer on the blockchain itself is describing something that does not exist.
- Guarantee an outcome. Recovery depends on where the funds went. Honest professionals quote probabilities and name their limits.
- Hack it back. Offers to "deploy a recovery tool" against a scammer's wallet are the follow-up scam, roughly 100% of the time.
The questions to ask before you pay anyone
- Who, by name, am I dealing with, and what entity do they work for?
- What, specifically, will you do — and which parts need legal process?
- What do you charge, when, and what happens to your fee if nothing is recovered?
- Can I verify your registration independently?
The answers that should worry you: urgency ("the window closes today"), payment in crypto to a personal wallet, guaranteed recovery percentages, and testimonials you can't trace to a real person.
If you're in this situation right now, start with our Recover page — it's the first 24 hours, step by step, before you spend anything on help.
General information only. Orange Brick Road Pty Ltd (ABN 92 655 540 480) does not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence and nothing here is financial product advice.