AARP | Manipulating you once to get your money isn’t enough for the scam industry. There’s a second level: Recovery scams.

These organizations know you’ve been scammed, and they know you’re desperate to recover your stolen funds. So, they pretend to be the people who will do it.

AARP’s Perfect Scam podcast interviews a scam survivor named Josh and Erin West, founder of Operation Shamrock.

Listen here: Double Scam — Caught in a Recovery Scheme After Crypto Fraud

After months of conversations with Hannah, a woman he met on an online-dating site, she tells Josh about her cryptocurrency investments and encourages him to invest as well.

“By the time the investments are made, victims have been in these relationships for weeks, even months.” — Erin West, Operation Shamrock

Over time, Josh put in more than $100,000 and watched his money grow. When he tried to withdraw his money, it was “frozen,” and Hannah had disappeared.

Josh reported the scam to the FBI, FTC, and local law enforcement. Then he searched online for help recovering the money. Plenty of options came up with companies claiming they could recover money stolen in crypto scams. Most charge thousands of dollars for a report that looks official, but is of no use to law enforcement.

Or, as in Josh’s case, they don’t charge anything up front. They “take the case,” say they’ve traced the money, and then tell the victim they need to pay fees to retrieve it. In Josh’s case, the fees were $35,000.

“The fact of the matter is that only law enforcement has the ability to make these recoveries.” — Erin West

A friend of his pointed him to Operation Shamrock, where he found real help. He reported the scam on the site, and a Triage Team officer traced the transactions and coordinated with Josh’s local law enforcement. He wasn’t able to get his money back, but he did receive real help from real people who were genuinely interested in his well-being. And he learned where his money went: China.

Listen here: Double Scam: Author Caught in Recovery Scheme After Crypto Dating Fraud