Crypto Investigations

Theft

Cryptocurrency Theft

Cryptoforensic Investigators regularly investigates stolen cryptocurrency with the aim of our work leading to funds recovery.

We conduct full scope investigations, including tracking and tracing stolen cryptocurrency, and provide critical intelligence that can play a pivotal in allowing the matter to be more effectively pursued and to increase the chances of some funds being recovered, seized, or frozen.

Our investigations can help uncover critically important details about the perpetrators, identify where the stolen funds are being laundered (or where the perpetrators are attempting to launder), and we monitor movement of cryptocurrency in real-time.

We generally only work on cases where the financial loss is at least $100k USD, with limited exceptions.

How We Work

Fraud

Cryptocurrency Fraud

Fraud is rife in the cryptocurrency space. From phishing-related frauds, to malicious smart contracts, to impersonation scams, to fake cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency fraud is everywhere.

We’ve conducted hundreds of investigations into various types of cryptocurrency-related frauds. Some are run by a single person, while others are run by organized groups of fraudsters.

Our investigations typically help to better uncover who the fraudsters are, and identify where the cryptocurrency is now, where the fraudulently obtained cryptocurrency has been laundered, or where and how the fraudsters are attempting to launder the ill-gotten funds.

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Scams

Cryptocurrency Investment Scams

Ponzi schemes and fake investment platforms that promise outsized returns, and then refuse to pay out claiming the need to pay some bogus fee such as “IRS Tax” are common in the cryptocurrency space unfortunately.

We’ve investigated investment scams of all shapes and colors and work to provide critical intelligence to help identify the fraudsters.

If you think you might be a victim of an investment scam, feel free to message us an ask; we’ve seen so many we can usually identify if it’s a scam or not in less than 10 seconds.

If you suspect you invested in an investment scam, do NOT threaten the scammers, do not threaten you will report to law enforcement, and do not give them any indication you know you’ve been scammed. These are the worst things you can do as a victim; taking such action threatens to moderately reduce your chances of recovering anything.

How We Work

Pig Butchering

Romance & Pig Butchering Scams

Romance scams, including the infamous ‘pig butchering scam’ that has become increasingly common, is a scam that people often end up resulting in victims losing hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even millions of dollars in some cases over a series of months.

These scams are typically run by large organized groups of individuals, often residing in South-east Asia. They are very much ‘long cons’ and take months to play out.

Pig butchering scams present unique challenges, including most notably jurisdictional challenges. Our investigators have worked on many pig butchering scams, and have a good understanding of how to best approach investigating such scams with the end goal of the victim hopefully being able to recover at least a portion of the cryptocurrency they sent.

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Embezzlement

Cryptocurrency Embezzlement

Businesses that choose to hold cryptocurrency as an asset or which are otherwise involved in the cryptocurrency space are sometimes victims as well.

Whether it’s a cryptocurrency payment processor, or an investment fund with a rogue employee (or founder) the has absconded or ‘exit scammed’ with cryptocurrency assets, we have ample experience investigating cryptocurrency assets that have been misappropriated or embezzled.

How We Work

Exchange Hacks

Cryptocurrency Exchange Hacks

Investigators at Cryptoforensic Investigators have experience investigating some of the largest and most well-known exchange hacks involving losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
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Exploits

DeFi Investigations & Smart Contract Exploits

In the past couple of years, hacks of DeFi exchanges and bridges have become more common, and there have been more smart contract exploits and vulnerabilities that have led to sizable losses for investors.

Cryptoforensic Investigators has ample experience investigating DeFi hacks, vulnerabilities and exploits.

How We Work

Hijacking

SIM-Hijacking

A SIM Hijack or a SIM Swap can play a notable role in certain cryptocurrency thefts, including thefts from exchange accounts, and in other cases, thefts from self-custodial wallets.

While it’s somewhat less common for SIM Hijacking to play a role in cryptocurrency losses than 5 years ago due to the fact that a much smaller proportion of people use SMS-2FA now due to inherent security risks, there are still cases where a SIM Swap plays a critical role that leads to a loss.

We have extensive experience dealing with SIM swaps and are often seen as subject-matter experts on them.

Expert Witness