Overview
The victim expects to get money from another scam refunded, or to retrieve an account that was stolen.
How It Works
Also called 'recovery room' scams, this scam preys on individuals who have already been victimized by a scam.
The pitch typically makes reference to the consumer's prior victimization and then falsely promises that the scammer can help recover money lost in a previous scam.
This scam is usually a front for an advance fee scheme or additional data loss scam.
Sometimes the scam impersonates law enforcement, or legal firms known for cryptocurrency recovery work, or a professional hacker-for-hire.
The scam is often advertised on social media or on YouTube channels of people who are already talking about scams or how they have been scammed.
The scam can also be directly targeted to individuals who have been targeted by a prior scam run by the same scammers.
The scammer will typically ask for a fee in advance, which can take the form of a direct payment, or a donation to a specified charity which is run by the scammer.
The scammer will sometimes attempt to gain legitimacy by being very sympathetic to the victim while warning the victim not to fall for scams again.
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Related Crime Schemes
A particular instance of this scam may embed one or more of these related schemes.
Advance Fee Scheme: In an advance fee scheme, the scammer asks for a small upfront fee in advance of providing a larger payout later. In reality, the larger payout never arrives.
Data Loss or Theft: Any scheme that results in victim losing data/scammer stealing data. Data in this context can mean login credentials, credit card details, or other personal or corporate information.
Fraudulent Platform: Any scheme that relies on custom built software that assists the crime. Includes fraudulent trading platforms, fraudulent clickworking platforms, and the like.
Victim Targeting Context
The scammer may use one or more of the following techniques to reach the victim.
Targeted Conversational: The scammer approaches the victim through targeted, topical online conversation.
Advertising: The scammer uses advertising to passively reach the victim.
Social Engineering: Psychological Manipulations
The scammer may use one or more of these psychological techniques to accomplish the scam.
Authority: The scammer employs an abuse of a position of authority to convince the victim to go along with the scam.
Codes or Jargon: The scammer uses official-looking codes or technical jargon as part of the scam to increase appearance of legitimacy or to confuse the victim.
Not A Scam: The scammer goes to great lengths to convince the victim the scheme is not a scam.
Sunk Cost Fallacy: The scammer concocts a scenario where the victim will lose everything they've earned so far if they don't keep going with the scam, claims "you've already invested and you'll lose it all".
Urgency: The scammer employs urgency to increase the likelihood that the victim will take action.
Social Engineering: Impersonation Techniques
The scammer may impersonate one or more of the following groups as part of the scam.
Business or NonProfit: The scammer impersonates a business or nonprofit.
Government Official: The scammer impersonates a government official.
Technical Support / Tech: The scammer impersonates a technical support worker or tech company.