Phisher got your cash? Don’t fall for recovery scams

If you’ve lost money to a scam, you might have come across individuals and services online that offer to recover your lost funds for you…for a small fee, of course. These are recovery scammers, and those who have just fallen victim to a phisher are particularly vulnerable.

This scam is particularly prevalent on social media websites like X, Facebook, TikTok and Reddit. Typically, the victim will post on the app, sharing their story of being scammed. As users start to message, comment and reply, the scammer will contact the original poster privately. They might state that they are an IT engineer, or that they work for an organisation that specialises in scams, and then suggest that they can recover the amount that the victim has lost.

At this stage, the scammer will offer their services (for a price), or they’ll request the card details that they gave the scammer in order to reclaim the money.  The victim sends this information over to them, or makes a payment, and the scammer continues to request more money, take more money or simply vanishes. 

Some recovery scams also involve cheque fraud, where the victim is sent a cheque for more than the money they lost. The scammer instructs them to cash the cheque, and then send the extra money back to them via bank transfer, or using cryptocurrency. When the victim cashes the cheque, the money appears in their account, and the victim returns the ‘overpayment’ to the scammer. Eventually, the bank realises that the cheque was fake, the money is removed from the victim’s account, and the scammer and their ‘overpayment’ is long gone.

It might be hard to believe that a person who has just been scammed could be scammed again. However, phishers and scammers prey on vulnerability, and a victim who has just lost their money is highly vulnerable. They might be unsure how to proceed or if there is anything that they can do, or they might be particularly desperate to get the money back that they have lost.

When victims are in a state of panic, or overwhelmed, their ability to think critically is reduced; and this, their vulnerability and their desperation makes them much more likely to fall victim to another scam. 

When you’ve been scammed, your first priority should be contacting your bank. If it is possible to recover the money that you’ve lost, your bank is the only way that this is possible. If it isn’t possible to recover the money you’ve lost, then the bank will be able to secure your account, freeze your cards so that no more money can be taken, and talk you through the next steps.

You should also contact your IT support team. This is especially important if you believe that the scammer might have access to your devices, or have installed something on your devices. Your IT support team will be able to ensure that your device is safe to continue using, and take action if it isn’t.