Fraud recovery fraud

When someone faces a scam, they can be contacted by the criminals again, who may pretend to be from the government or the regulatory, and they may offer help to recover the lost funds for a small fee. Most victims have been called by a recovery team who seek fees to help get back the previously invested money. 

However, such impersonators may never contact the victim after getting the funds. Sometimes, they ask to pay; in some cases, they seek information like bank details, which they can exploit to commit other crimes. 

If you get any such call, you should end all contact and ask them how they found out you are the victim. You can report such calls to the police and enforcement agencies. 

How Does It Happen?

If you have been a victim, the scammer has all your information and uses it to contact you again. They lure the victim to regain the lost funds, and they may be convinced they have the authority to arrest the crooks who committed the crime. But they seek an advance fee to solve the case.

For example, in a land banking scam, the seller promised huge returns they would give when the land was sold to a major developer. 

Later, they claimed adverse media actions led to losses, but the project was on the verge of gaining and had only a few plots left. So, instead, all buyers got worthless small plots of agricultural land.

The investors were later contacted to get an insurance policy for the investment plan, and the perpetrators hired a private investigator who guaranteed to recover funds. 

Some investors were contacted by imposters who posed as investigating police officers, and they asked to pay a fee to the court to get the money back.

Tips To Protect Yourself

• If you do not pay, they will not contact you. 

• They will ask you to pay for related costs like travel or administration or other fees if you pay. For example, they say the money is with the court and can be recovered by paying a small fee. 

• Sometimes, they tell you they will get all the fees back once the case is resolved. They seek details about the bank account to send money into it, only to extract extra funds. 

• Check the websites, addresses and phone numbers and do not rely only on the emails or numbers the seller provides.

• No government agency will ever make a phone call to tell about the victim's recovery. If you get a call from a recovery agent, you can ignore it.

How To Identify It?

• If you have been contacted out of the blue and the other person knows all about the scam you suffered. Also, they seek money transfers to solve your problem. However, no authorised offices will ask for a fee to solve a legal case or recover lost money.

• Their messages may look genuine but have the address @yahoo or @hotmail. Authorities will never use webmail to contact the public. Their emails lack logos and graphics and may have many spelling / grammatical errors.

• If you suspect a fraud, report it to the regulatory agencies.