Recovery scam
A second con targeting scam victims with false promises to recover their lost money for a fee.
A recovery scam is a second con aimed at people who have already been defrauded once. The scammer poses as a lawyer, a 'recovery agency', a regulator or even the police, and claims they can get your lost money back — for an upfront fee, a 'tax', or your bank details. Victims of an earlier scam are targeted deliberately, sometimes using contact lists traded among criminals, precisely because they are desperate and known to be reachable.
There is nothing to recover; the fee simply adds a fresh loss on top of the first. The hard rule is that no genuine body charges an advance fee to return money to a fraud victim, and legitimate authorities do not cold-call promising recovery in exchange for payment. Be especially wary of anyone who contacts you out of the blue soon after a scam claiming special access to your funds. Report both the original fraud and the follow-up approach, and use only official channels to pursue a refund — our guide to getting your money back after a scam sets out the legitimate routes. Its cruelty is deliberate: it hunts the already-hurt with false hope.