What Is Crypto Currency? Home page. Financial Readiness Checklist

Reference

Trusted Resources

Where to report crypto fraud, which agencies publish free guidance, and where to find free help from a human being. Everything here is government or nonprofit, and nothing on this page pays us anything.

Last reviewed: October 2026 Links verified at review No affiliate or referral links

If money has already left

Do this before reading the rest of the page. Speed matters for the record you build, and the first hour is also when the second scam arrives.

  1. Send nothing else. Not a fee, not a tax, not a deposit to unlock a withdrawal, however the request is framed. Every further payment is a separate loss.
  2. Do not hire anyone promising to recover it. That is the follow-on scam, and it targets people who have just been hit. See the warning below.
  3. Write down everything while it is fresh. Transaction references, addresses you sent to, usernames, websites, phone numbers, screenshots of the conversation, dates and amounts. Reports go much further with these attached.
  4. Report it to the FBI at ic3.gov, the federal intake point for internet crime including crypto fraud.
  5. Report it to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, which is how patterns get spotted across many victims.
  6. Tell the platform. If an exchange or wallet service was involved, open a case with them directly. Some can flag addresses even when they cannot reverse anything.
  7. Tell your bank or card issuer if dollars left through them before the crypto did. That leg sometimes has protections the crypto leg does not.
  8. If you shared credentials or personal details, start at identitytheft.gov and consider freezing your credit at each nationwide agency.

Being honest about this: reporting is not the same as recovery. Crypto transactions cannot be reversed, and most reported losses are not returned. Reporting still matters, because it builds the official record, it is sometimes what links a case to an existing investigation, and it is what makes the next person's warning possible. Anyone who tells you reporting guarantees your money back is not telling you the truth.

The short answer

Report crypto fraud to the FBI at ic3.gov and the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov. For learning rather than reporting, the free guidance published by the CFPB, the FTC and the SEC's Investor.gov is better than most paid material.

Everything listed below is a government agency, a nonprofit, or a free public service. Nothing here sells crypto, and nothing here pays us.

Where to report

File with more than one. They do different things with what you send, and none of them treats a report to another agency as a report to them.

FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center

ic3.gov

The federal intake point for internet crime, including crypto-enabled fraud. Reports feed investigative work and the annual public reporting that documents which tactics are in current use.

Use it for: any crypto fraud loss, attempted fraud, or compromised account.

Federal Trade Commission

reportfraud.ftc.gov

Consumer fraud reporting. The FTC aggregates reports to spot patterns across many victims, which is how warnings and enforcement actions begin.

Use it for: scams, deceptive offers, impersonation, and fraud that was attempted but failed.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

consumerfinance.gov/complaint

Complaints about financial companies. The company is asked to respond, and you can see the response. Most useful where a bank, card issuer, lender or payment service is involved.

Use it for: a financial company that will not resolve something, including credit reporting problems.

Securities and Exchange Commission

sec.gov/tcr

Tips, complaints and referrals about securities fraud. Many crypto investment schemes fall under securities law, so this is the right door when something was sold to you as an investment.

Use it for: fake investment platforms, unregistered offerings, and promised returns.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission

cftc.gov

The CFTC has jurisdiction over commodity and derivatives fraud, which covers a share of crypto trading schemes. Its complaint and whistleblower forms are linked from the site.

Use it for: fraudulent trading programmes, managed accounts and leveraged crypto offers.

Your state attorney general

naag.org

Every state has a consumer protection office, and some pursue cases that federal agencies do not. The National Association of Attorneys General lists each one.

Use it for: a local or in-state operator, and as a second channel alongside the federal ones.

A local police report

Your local police department

Local departments rarely investigate crypto fraud themselves, so this step gets skipped. File anyway: a police report number is sometimes required by insurers, employers and financial institutions before they will act on a claim.

Use it for: the report number, and for any case with a local or in-person element.

The scam that arrives second

This deserves its own section because it is so reliable. Within days of a loss, people are contacted by someone offering to get the money back. The approach may be a message, a comment under a post asking for help, or an advert that appears when searching for recovery.

Nobody can recover crypto for a fee

A completed crypto transaction cannot be reversed by anyone. Not a service, not a hacker-for-hire, not a tracing firm, not someone claiming a contact at an exchange. Anyone taking payment to undo it is selling something that does not exist.

Treat all of these as the same scam: an upfront fee or retainer, a request for your seed phrase or wallet access "to trace the funds", someone who found you in a comment thread or support group, a person claiming to be from an agency offering to release your funds, and anyone who contacts you first.

Agencies do not charge to help you, and they do not contact victims demanding a payment to release anything. If someone says otherwise, that is the test being failed.

Federal guidance worth reading

These are for learning, not reporting, and all of it is free. It is written for ordinary readers rather than for specialists.

FTC Consumer Advice

consumer.ftc.gov

Plain-language articles on scams, payments and debt, updated as tactics change. Strong on what a specific scam looks like from the inside.

Investor.gov

investor.gov

The SEC's investor education site, including tools for checking whether a person or firm is registered. Useful before handing anyone money.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

consumerfinance.gov

Guidance on credit reports, debt collection, mortgages and payments, plus searchable complaint data showing what people report about specific companies.

Internal Revenue Service

irs.gov

The official source on digital asset reporting obligations. We do not interpret tax rules anywhere on this site, so this is where that question goes.

USA.gov

usa.gov

The front door to federal and state services when you are not sure which agency handles something. Also a way to confirm whether an agency contacting you is real.

FDIC

fdic.gov

Where to check whether a bank is really insured, and what that insurance does and does not cover. Deposit insurance is widely misrepresented in crypto marketing. Credit unions are insured separately, through the NCUA at ncua.gov.

Free help from a human being

Not everything needs an article. These are organisations where a person will talk to you, at no cost or low cost, and none of them is us.

National Foundation for Credit Counseling

nfcc.org

A network of nonprofit credit counselling agencies offering budget and debt counselling, often free for an initial session.

Note: we list this even though it overlaps with what Ninja Credit does. If a nonprofit is the better fit for you, use it.

Legal aid (Legal Services Corporation)

lsc.gov

The Legal Services Corporation funds civil legal aid across the country and can point you to the programme serving your area. Free legal help for those who qualify.

211

211.org

Local referrals for essentials: food, housing, utility assistance, and help navigating what is available near you. Run through United Way.

Use it for: the gap between a loss and the next paycheck.

Eldercare Locator

eldercare.acl.gov

A public service connecting older adults and their families to local support, including help after financial exploitation.

AARP Fraud Watch Network

aarp.org/money/scams-fraud

Fraud education and a helpline staffed by volunteers trained to talk through what happened. Free, and membership is not required.

HUD-approved housing counseling

hud.gov

Approved counsellors advise on rent, mortgages and the risk of losing housing, at little or no cost. The relevant channel when a loss threatens where you live.

Credit and identity

If credentials or personal details were exposed, this is the part that limits the damage, and the official routes are free.

AnnualCreditReport.com

annualcreditreport.com

The only federally authorised site for free copies of your credit reports from the three nationwide agencies. Look-alike sites exist, so type the address rather than following an advert.

IdentityTheft.gov

identitytheft.gov

The FTC's reporting and recovery service. It produces a personal recovery plan and the affidavit that institutions ask for.

Security freezes

consumerfinance.gov

A freeze is free by law and has to be placed at each of the three nationwide agencies separately: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. The CFPB explains how freezes and fraud alerts differ.

Why here: we link the guidance rather than the agencies themselves, so this page stays government and nonprofit only.

Our own credit guide

Credit & Financial Foundation

The one internal link in this section. It covers what credit reports contain, what the law gives you, and the promises that mark a predatory credit operator.

For businesses

Free or low-cost business advice exists and is badly underused.

Small Business Administration

sba.gov

Official guidance on business finances, funding programmes and planning, plus a directory of local assistance including Small Business Development Centers.

SCORE

score.org

Free mentoring from experienced business people, supported through the SBA. Mentoring is ongoing rather than a single session.

How these were chosen

A resources page is easy to monetise quietly, which is exactly why the rule should be visible.

What qualifies

  • Government, nonprofit, or a free public service
  • Useful without buying anything
  • Published by the body actually responsible
  • Listed even where it competes with us

What is excluded, on principle

  • Anything described as crypto or fund recovery
  • Exchanges, wallets and custody services
  • Price trackers, portfolio apps and trading tools
  • Paid courses, newsletters and signal groups
  • Affiliate links, referral links and paid placement

What we deliberately do not link to

The exclusions are not squeamishness. Each one is a specific conflict.

Recovery services are excluded because the thing they sell is impossible, and because linking one from a page people reach after a loss would cause direct harm. Exchanges and wallets are excluded because this site exists to help you understand custody before you choose a provider, and a referral fee would quietly reverse that purpose. Price trackers and trading tools are excluded because watching a number move is not education, and it tends to produce exactly the urgency the scam pages warn about.

Paid courses and newsletters are excluded because the free federal material is better and the paid tier of this field is where the worst claims live. And affiliate links generally are excluded because this site states in several places that it has none, and a claim like that is either true everywhere or worthless.

Found a broken link, or something that belongs here?

Links are re-checked at each review date, but agencies reorganise their sites. If one here is dead, or a free government or nonprofit service is missing, the contact page is the place to tell us. Suggestions of commercial services will not be added, whatever the terms.

Crypto Security Glossary

Common questions

Questions About Reporting

Will reporting get my money back?

Usually not, and we would rather say that than imply otherwise. Crypto transactions cannot be reversed, and most reported losses are not returned.

Reporting is still worth doing. It creates the official record institutions ask for, it can connect your case to an existing investigation, and aggregated reports are how the next person gets warned. Anyone guaranteeing recovery is lying to you.

Which agency should I report to first?

Do the FBI at ic3.gov and the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, in either order. Add the SEC at sec.gov/tcr if it was sold to you as an investment, and the CFPB if a bank, card issuer or lender is involved.

Report to all that apply. None of them treats a report filed elsewhere as a report to them.

Is it too late to report something from months ago?

No. Older reports still contribute to the pattern, and cases are sometimes built long after the fact from many separate complaints.

Report whatever you still have. Partial details are more useful than none.

Someone contacted me offering to recover my crypto. Could it be real?

No. A completed crypto transaction cannot be reversed by anybody, so a service charging to undo it is selling something that does not exist.

The pattern is consistent: they contact you first, they found you in a comment or a support group, there is an upfront fee, and sooner or later they want your seed phrase or wallet access "to trace the funds". Agencies never charge victims for help and never ask for payment to release funds.

Why does this page link a nonprofit that competes with Ninja Credit?

Because the alternative is a resources page that only points toward its publisher, which is not a resources page.

Nonprofit credit counselling through the NFCC network is the right fit for some people, and this site would be less credible pretending otherwise. Our editorial standards set out the rule.

Does this page contain affiliate links?

No. There are no affiliate links, referral links, sponsored placements or tracking parameters on any outbound link on this page, and no organisation listed pays us anything.

That is also why you will not find exchanges, wallets, trading tools, tax software or paid courses here. Full detail is on the disclosures page.

Keep going

Scams & Security

Common Crypto Scams

The scripts behind the losses that bring people to this page, set out one by one.

Scams & Security

Crypto Scam Red Flags

The tactics that work regardless of the story: urgency, secrecy and manufactured trust.

Free educational worksheet

Before There Is Anything To Report

Most of what is on this page exists because something already went wrong. The Financial Readiness Checklist works the other way round: it walks through what you have committed, what would break if a loss happened, and what should be true before any of this is a question. No score, no credit check, nothing sensitive asked for.

Get the Checklist Start Here

Important Disclaimer

What Is Crypto Currency? is an educational resource operated by Ninja Credit Consultants LLC. Everything published here is general education only. It is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, accounting advice, credit repair advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any asset or to use any particular platform or service. Nothing on this page is advice about your individual situation.

Ninja Credit Consultants LLC is not a lender, broker, investment adviser, broker-dealer, law firm, accounting firm or tax adviser, and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any agency or organisation listed on this page. Listing an organisation is not a guarantee of any outcome, and we cannot influence how any agency handles a report. Reporting fraud does not mean a loss will be recovered.

These links are to third-party sites we do not control, and their content and addresses can change at any time. Links are re-checked at each review date shown above. No organisation listed here pays us, and this page contains no affiliate or referral links. We will never ask for your seed phrase, private keys, passwords, account credentials, or Social Security number, and no legitimate agency or recovery service will either. Read our full disclosures.