Blockchain as pseudo anonymous

Towards Better Metrics for Identity Solution in Human Trafficking

Robert Wahlstedt

Dr. Mercer

Liberty University

CSCI 612-D02 LOU

November 9, 2019

 

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While metrics that access control is about allowing a system to verify and confirm an individual has access to a system include biometrics, passwords, or smart cards, there are instances in society which require even stronger methods of clarifying one’s identity.  In cases involving human trafficking, there is much room for research involving the ability to confirm identities and the state of intent because of the potential to help recover children.  While humans are susceptible to a prosecutor’s bias where they can only see a situation a certain way, technology can provide a more neutral and objective analysis process seeing elements that a human investigator might miss. In one story, some people in a brothel were unconscious because of carbon monoxide and upon calling the landlord, the landlord tried to dispose of the bodies by rolling up the carpet with the victims inside and hastily taking the roll outside. Fortunately, a family noticed the carpet with feet sticking out of the end to the police.  The police were able to apprehend the property owners who were pimps and rescue one of the roommates (Batstone, 2014).  With increasing advances in machine learning in natural language processing, image processing, and more intelligent law enforcement software, the defense against human trafficking could be stronger.

Luke 19:1-10 says “He entered Jericho and was passing through.  2 And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus.  He was a chief tax collector and was rich.  3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature.  4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.  5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they

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all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost”

The article, It’s time we harnessed Big Data for good with insights provided by the World Economic Forum describes human trafficking as a $150 billion per year business hiding in plain sight ("Can Big Data be used to stop human trafficking?", 2019). From one effort the article describes, many law enforcements from 170 countries came together to pool of data  to help alleviate exploitation facilitated by the nonprofit Stop The Traffik ("Can Big Data be used to stop human trafficking?", 2019). Human trafficking is the act of tricking, luring, or forcing a person into leaving their home to work for little or no money (Ethan & Marcus, 2019).  While it could seem to some that slavery markets are an element of the past, however, sadly they are mistaken.  With promises of “having a better life” many “accept help immigrating” lured by fake job offers with what is advertised to be little to no negative aspects (Ethan & Marcus, 2019). Some examples of outcomes include kidnapping, forced, beaten, often ending in brothels and prostitution (Ethan & Marcus, 2019).  Other outcomes include working in sweat shops, commercial agriculture, and on construction sites (Ethan & Marcus, 2019).  Kanoni Titchen who is a medical doctor in family medicine spoke at a TedX Talk at the George School Forum where she shared her desire that more people in the medical field be aware that today there are 21,000 enslaved globally, an estimated 300,000 children at risk for human trafficking each year. A pimp is expected to make $200,000 per year from just one victim and the average year by which most of the recovered victims are lured into sex trafficking is 15 years old (Titchen, 2019). During one 2005 European Union Trial, one pimp was reportedly making profits of over 2 million Euros per

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year (Sophie, 2009).Currently around 8524 human trafficking cases are heard before United States courts according to the anti-human trafficking non-profit Polaris. For many years legal solutions for human trafficking have been implemented and because many are unsure of what to look for and even what language to use for cases involving psychological manipulation there is little to no precedence in some jurisdiction. I believe that technology helps ease some of these crimes and therefore, it is our responsibility as technology students to produce innovative solutions.

In my hometown in Spokane Washington, I am aware of several factors which contribute to a worrying trend in human trafficking in my own city.  First, the cost of the west side of the state is expensive particularly in the Bellevue and north Seattle region ("YouTube", 2019).  Second, many Russian immigrants choose Spokane because of our proximity to Russia, Seattle is chosen as a destination.  When they find out what a nearby place which is not too expensive their options are Portland or Spokane.  According to the Union Gospel Mission of Spokane, Spokane has one of the highest high-school dropout rates in the state of Washington and is very close to freeways leading through Idaho to Las Vegas. According to my local ABC news station, KXLY in Spokane, one possible contributing explanation of why personal ads were taken down from Craigslist was because of the facilitation of human trafficking ("YouTube", 2019). Because of clever slang terms used to dance around human trafficking, it is probable that even career law enforcement professionals could not pick out these advertisements.

Human Trafficking is also a problem in the European Union with 400,000 people crossing into Europe each year illegally (Sophie, 2009).  Eric Van de Sypt a federal prosecuting attorney in Germany which is along another human trafficking from Turkey across Europe said in reference to immigration related human trafficking, “It’s incredible, we often say they aren’t victims because they paid for a service taken from Point A to Point B. They paid for a certain

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service, but they did not know pay for someone to risk their lives.  They did not pay someone that they would be put under a truck.  They did not pay to be beaten.  That is not right, these are victims.  I think it’s pretty crazy the people dare think like that” (Sophie, 2009).Luke 10:25-37 says “And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law?  How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Fortunately for us, there are technology tools which could be used to discover the logistics network such as natural-language processing.  Henk Herat, a German detective said “we mustn’t forget that the (pimps) are human beings too.  The people who come home to a place where they can rest.  They must stay somewhere and that is what we call a coordination network.  It must be real, they need cars, they need a truck, they need a safe house.  As we say, there must be someone running the safe house” (Sophie, 2009).  Also, social media is a tool that investors are turning towards to help determine children who are at risk.  Social media can capture a person’s identity perhaps being a better repository of their characteristics, emotions, and moods not only for the past week but often detectives can establish a baseline over the years that individual has been a member of the platform (Akhgar et al., 2014). Participation in a social network often involves status updates, time that updates are often posted, geographic information or pictures or videos (Akhgar et al., 2014).  A innocent post could provide a link to investigators connecting dots between points in time (Akhgar et al., 2014). There is still much work to be done.  As we come up with a better taxonomy of the motives behind the circumstances surrounding cyber-crime, we can come up with better profiling of those who commit these acts and build resilient neighborhoods where kidnappings could be deterred.

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We need to create oversight to law enforcement as they use tools created by companies such as Amazon and Google.  As human trafficking is a challenge for the world, I believe that the Information and Communication Technologies at the United Nations should create policies which could more quickly determine the legitimacy of corporations to hand over data.

For an example of how cognitive computing helps is the facial image recognition of known felons.  Geoffrey Hinton who is a developer of neural networks, a data structure for machine learning, believes that image-perception algorithms are currently and increasingly will be better than a human’s at certain tasks. The cognitive services API within Microsoft Azure supplies support for face detection within video processing which could recognize emotions such as fear and anger (Masood, 2019).  Currently there is emphasis on domain specific situations such as looking for shoplifters based on their sentiment and the ability to create custom image classifiers and for static objects such as receipts but as these technologies evolve, it is anticipated that we can use REST APIs to bring about a unified platform (Masood, 2019).

I am hopeful that as we learn more about ourselves and how we communicate perhaps with the recording, storage, and retrieval of information through technology, we can think about how natural language is produced, disseminated, and received. As humans, this is a large task for machine learning as we realize that a single term or construct can have multiple meanings, voices, and significance (Cleland Silva, 2019).  As we attempt to teach the computer through both supervised and unsupervised learning models how to understand a natural language, we in effect are learning more about how we communicate through the teach-the-teacher approach. We realize the subtle messages which come in dialog which might not come across in text through Freudian slips that reveal much about our ideas, attitudes, courses of action, and beliefs both expressed as well as in the surrounding context (Cleland Silva, 2019).I am eager to invest in developing these open-source technologies that would make my hometown of Spokane safer by

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finding the needle in the haystack that they would make the piece of the world I have access to a better place to be. As Mother Teresa once said “I am a little pencil in God's hands.  He does the thinking.  He does the writing.  He does everything and sometimes it is really hard because it is a broken pencil and He has to sharpen it a little more” ("Mother Teresa: Become 'A Pencil in God's Hand’", 2019).

Revelations 20:11-15 says “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.  From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.  And I saw the dead, great, and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.  Then another book was opened, which is the book of life.  And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.  And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.  This is the second death, the lake of fire.  And if anyone has name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

References

1.  Akhgar, B., Bosco, F., Elliot, S., Kumaraguruparan, P., Rearick, B., Rogers, M., & Staniforth, A. (2014).  Cybercrime and cyber terrorism investigator's handbook.  Syngress Publishing.

2.  Batstone, D. (2014).  Not for sale.  HarperCollins e-Books.

3.  Can Big Data be used to stop human trafficking?  (2019).  Retrieved 10 November 2019, from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/10/data-big-harness-good-human-trafficking-stop-the-traffic/

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4.  Cleland Silva, T. (2019).  Transnational Management and Globalised Workers.  New York, NY: Routledge.

5.  Ethan, B., & Marcus, B. (2019).  Human Trafficking PowerPoint Presentation.  Retrieved 10 November 2019, from https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/lbrowning9/human-trafficking-powerpoint-presentation.  

6.  Masood, A., & Hashmi, A. (2019).  Cognitive Computing Recipes.  Berkeley, CA: Apress.7.  

7. Mother Teresa: Become 'A Pencil in God's Hand.’ (2019).  Retrieved 20 February 2009, from https://www.crosswalk.com/family/career/mother-teresa-become-a-pencil-in-gods-hand’-11599796.html

8. Sophie, J. (2009).  Human Trafficking: Is Europe Guilty?  [Film].  Los Angeles, CA: Prime Entertainment Group.

9.  Titchen, K. (2019).  YouTube.  Retrieved 13 February 2017, from https://youtu.be/hrxhptvEOTs10. YouTube.  (2019).

10.  Retrieved 28 March 2018, from https://youtu.be/98y7Jw3Lcts

The blockchain is pseudonymous and not anonymous. All transactions are recorded on the blockchain including wallet addresses making it possible to trace the movement of crypto and identify wallets which have received stolen crypto assets.  

The FBI's new unit will include agents who have specialized cryptocurrency and blockchain expertise, and will be focused on the task of digging into abuses of cryptocurrencies and exchanges, tracing cybercrime profits, and working with other law enforcement agencies on cryptocurrency investigations. https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/fin-tech/1240870/a-practical-guide-to-tracing-and-recovering-crypto-assets

A Practical Guide To Tracing And Recovering Crypto Assets - Fin Tech - United States

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As blockchains are publicly accessible ledgers, it is, in theory, easy to investigate crypto crimes. However, criminals have several ways to obfuscate the trail of illicit funds, making the investigation process harder. For instance, crypto criminals can launder crypto crime funds through mixing services, dark web markets, decentralized exchanges, etc.

It is possible to investigate crypto crimes using blockchain transaction monitoring tools. Blockchain analytics software provides investigators with identifying data for blockchain entities, risk assessment insights for crypto funds, and investigative tools for clear transaction visualization. By combining such data with KYC information, investigators can trace the funds back to the criminal.

Today, investigators can choose from different blockchain analytics providers, like Scorechain, to investigate crypto crimes holistically.

You sent

https://www.scorechain.com/investigate-crypto-crime

Scorechain | The Blockchain Analytics AML platform for crypto assets

You sent

Bitcoin's blockchain technology is, in principle, anonymous but also traceable due to the transparency element. Bitcoin can thus be called “pseudo-anonymous.” Government agencies are hiring cryptocurrency experts to help them with BTCtracking and identity verification

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Criminals go where the money is, so it’s no surprise that with the rise of bitcoin and other virtual assets, crypto scams are on the rise too. And because crypto is so new to so many users, it may be even more difficult for people to identify and avoid potential fraud.

This dynamic resulted in reported crypto fraud losses of $680 million last year in the roughly trillion-dollar cryptocurrency market, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Many are falling victim to classic frauds updated for the Web3 age: crypto investment schemes promoted by fake influencers or romance scammers looking to dip into your crypto wallet.  Other new types of hacks, thefts or fraud are focusing on the continued rise of decentralized finance, in which criminals try to exploit a decentralized system, blockchain or smart contact.

While the inherent transparency of crypto transactions does help in tracking your lost coin – to a degree – the patchwork of regulations governing the space and the lack of expertise for this kind of financial fraud are some of the factors that make it hard to recover stolen cryptocurrency.  People may need to turn to a reputable investigator who will work with law enforcement agencies and who will attempt – but never guarantee – to recover stolen funds.  On the flip side, always remain vigilant for “scammer” investigators purporting to recover funds, especially if they ask for up-front fees.  But if you’ve fallen victim to a crypto scam, here are four key steps you should take: 

1. Find your transaction IDs

Before investigators can begin tracing your assets, they will need all the transaction IDs identifying the funds you sent to the scammers. These transaction IDs will allow investigators to “follow the money” and see exactly where your coins are moving. While it is still possible to investigate without transaction IDs, knowing these will expedite any investigation and reduce potential complications.

What is a transaction ID? 

On most blockchains, a transaction ID, or TXID, is a unique string of letters and numbers that represent a record of the movement of cryptocurrency from one address to another. This can sometimes be referred to as the transaction hash. This hash identifies the datetime, sending addresses, receiving addresses, transaction amounts, fees and more. A Bitcoin transaction hash, for example, is displayed as a 65-digit-hexadecimal number. 

Where can I find my TXID?

Using bitcoin as an example, start by locating the address you sent your bitcoin to and paste this into the search bar of any open-source blockchain explorer.  This will display all incoming and outgoing transactions to and from that address. To locate your TXID, look for the date/time and the amount sent. If the date/time and amount received match with your transaction, then you can identify your TXID by locating the hash associated with the transaction. 

Not all exchanges and wallets provide TXIDs for you. Depending on the exchange or wallet you are using, you may need to dig deeper into your transaction information to find the transaction ID. Since most blockchains are public, you should be able to find it yourself through any open-source blockchain explorer.   

2. Write your narrative

A clean and concise narrative of your incident will help give your case color, aiding in an investigator’s understanding of the flow of funds. Important information to include in your narrative would include:

all transaction IDs

where you sent your crypto from (private wallet, account at exchange X)

where you believed you were sending your funds (perpetrator’s private wallet, arbitrage account at XYZ) 

screenshots of fraudulent interaction (fraudulent email/text, or Twitter post)

any additional details regarding the scam and scammers

3. Prepare to prove ownership

Law enforcement will usually require proof of ownership of the original source of funds.  Ensure that you still have access to any accounts you initially used to send money to the scammers. A reliable way to prove ownership of a wallet is by signing a specified message with your private key, or by sending a micro transaction (a few Satoshi) to a predefined crypto-address.     

4.  Contact law enforcement and report

If you think you or someone you know has been a victim of fraud, it is important to notify the applicable law enforcement or government agency. Reporting mechanisms for cybercrimes such as crypto scams may vary from country to country.  Below is a sample list of available resources you can use to report the incident in various countries: 

Country

Reporting Mechanism

United States

Go to your local police station to report a crime, or to FBI’s Internet Crime and Complaint Center (IC3) or to the Federal Trade Commission at the  Federal Trade Commission.

European Union

Europol is a great resource in Europe for finding the reporting website of your country: For member states without a dedicated online option in place, Europol recommends going to your local police station to lodge a complaint.

Canada

Refer to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and report online. 

Singapore

Refer to Singapore’s National Crime Prevention Council’s Scam Alert page .

Dubai/Abu Dhabi

Report online through the eCrime website, or  Aman service– Abu Dhabi Police, or Dubai Police’s website.

Australia

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission provides a variety of contact details to report serious or organized crime activity.

Argentina

The Unidad de Información Financiera (UIF) provides a link to instructions on Suspicious Activity Reports. There are no formal guidance  on how to proceed with reporting crypto scams.

Colombia 

Report via the Unidad de Información y Análisis Financiero. There are no formal guidance on how to proceed with reporting crypto scams.

Brazil

Report in person via  a local police station,  or alternatively report online via the  Civil Police DEIC “Departamento Estadual de Investigações Criminais” portal.  

Japan

Report in person via a local police station. 

 If I follow the above steps, will I get my funds back? 

The process may be challenging, time consuming and may not always guarantee the recovery of the lost funds. Sometimes people are just not going to get their crypto back. 

The U.S. Department of Justice in a  June 2022 report highlighted some of these challenges: the speed and cross-border nature of digital asset transactions; differences in how various foreign law enforcement agencies classify digital assets, platforms and Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs); the lack of specialized skills and expertise regarding digital assets; and the lack of access to effective blockchain analytics and cryptocurrency investigation tools.  Nevertheless, lodging your complaint with your federal government will increase your chances of asset recovery if a larger investigation is ever opened against your scammer.

The probability of a successful asset recovery also depends on additional factors including the amount lost, obfuscation techniques used and whether the funds have moved to a regulated exchange, which makes it easier for a law enforcement agency to reveal the identity of the receiving address via a subpoena.  

CipherTrace Professional Services can assist you with every aspect of the recovery, from investigation to helping law enforcement write their subpoenas to testifying in support of our analysis. For larger losses exceeding $1 million, you can use the investigations@ciphertrace.com email set aside for such inquiries.

You sent

Nice article from Mastercard: https://ciphertrace.com/how-to-get-bitcoin-back-from-scammer/#:~:text=Go%20to%20your%20local%20police,at%20the%20Federal%20Trade%20Commission.

.BC (bitcoin via transfer technology is a common file extension). A recent sharing of open source components such as cryptocurrency wallets such as armory (used not just in Bitcoin). More fun to work on certain components such as mathematical proofs because this is attractive to grant money from NSF. Look at GitHub for common coding for cryptocurrencies. Looking at tools such as https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/fin-tech/1240870/a-practical-guide-to-tracing-and-recovering-crypto-assets talks about how cryptocurrencies can be contracts. Must have financial liquidity at some point. The blockchain structure upon which cryptocurrencies are based is The blockchain is pseudonymous and not anonymous. All transactions are recorded on the blockchain including wallet addresses making it possible to trace the movement of crypto and identify wallets which have received stolen crypto assets. Recovering Crypto Assets - Fin Tech - United States

You sent

As blockchains are publicly accessible ledgers, it is, in theory, easy to investigate crypto crimes. However, criminals have several ways to obfuscate the trail of illicit funds, making the investigation process harder. For instance, crypto criminals can launder crypto crime funds through mixing services, dark web markets, decentralized exchanges, etc.

It is possible to investigate crypto crimes using blockchain transaction monitoring tools. Blockchain analytics software provides investigators with identifying data for blockchain entities, risk assessment insights for crypto funds, and investigative tools for clear transaction visualization. By combining such data with KYC information, investigators can trace the funds back to the criminal.

Today, investigators can choose from different blockchain analytics providers, like Scorechain, to investigate crypto crimes holistically.

You sent

https://www.scorechain.com/investigate-crypto-crime

Scorechain | The Blockchain Analytics AML platform for crypto assets

You sent

Bitcoin's blockchain technology is, in principle, anonymous but also traceable due to the transparency element. Bitcoin can thus be called “pseudo-anonymous.” Government agencies are hiring cryptocurrency experts to help them with BTCtracking and identity verification

You sent

Criminals go where the money is, so it’s no surprise that with the rise of bitcoin and other virtual assets, crypto scams are on the rise too. And because crypto is so new to so many users, it may be even more difficult for people to identify and avoid potential fraud.

This dynamic resulted in reported crypto fraud losses of $680 million last year in the roughly trillion-dollar cryptocurrency market, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Many are falling victim to classic frauds updated for the Web3 age: crypto investment schemes promoted by fake influencers or romance scammers looking to dip into your crypto wallet. Other new types of hacks, thefts or fraud are focusing on the continued rise of decentralized finance, in which criminals try to exploit a decentralized system, blockchain or smart contact.

While the inherent transparency of crypto transactions does help in tracking your lost coin – to a degree – the patchwork of regulations governing the space and the lack of expertise for this kind of financial fraud are some of the factors that make it hard to recover stolen cryptocurrency. People may need to turn to a reputable investigator who will work with law enforcement agencies and who will attempt – but never guarantee – to recover stolen funds. On the flip side, always remain vigilant for “scammer” investigators purporting to recover funds, especially if they ask for up-front fees. But if you’ve fallen victim to a crypto scam, here are four key steps you should take: 

1. Find your transaction IDs

Before investigators can begin tracing your assets, they will need all the transaction IDs identifying the funds you sent to the scammers. These transaction IDs will allow investigators to “follow the money” and see exactly where your coins are moving. While it is still possible to investigate without transaction IDs, knowing these will expedite any investigation and reduce potential complications.

What is a transaction ID? 

On most blockchains, a transaction ID, or TXID, is a unique string of letters and numbers that represent a record of the movement of cryptocurrency from one address to another. This can sometimes be referred to as the transaction hash. This hash identifies the datetime, sending addresses, receiving addresses, transaction amounts, fees and more. A Bitcoin transaction hash, for example, is displayed as a 65-digit-hexadecimal number. 

Where can I find my TXID?

Using bitcoin as an example, start by locating the address you sent your bitcoin to and paste this into the search bar of any open-source blockchain explorer. This will display all incoming and outgoing transactions to and from that address. To locate your TXID, look for the date/time and the amount sent. If the date/time and amount received match with your transaction, then you can identify your TXID by locating the hash associated with the transaction. 

Not all exchanges and wallets provide TXIDs for you. Depending on the exchange or wallet you are using, you may need to dig deeper into your transaction information to find the transaction ID. Since most blockchains are public, you should be able to find it yourself through any open-source blockchain explorer.   

2. Write your narrative

A clean and concise narrative of your incident will help give your case color, aiding in an investigator’s understanding of the flow of funds. Important information to include in your narrative would include:

all transaction IDs

where you sent your crypto from (private wallet, account at exchange X)

where you believed you were sending your funds (perpetrator’s private wallet, arbitrage account at XYZ) 

screenshots of fraudulent interaction (fraudulent email/text, or Twitter post)

any additional details regarding the scam and scammers

3. Prepare to prove ownership

Law enforcement will usually require proof of ownership of the original source of funds. Ensure that you still have access to any accounts you initially used to send money to the scammers. A reliable way to prove ownership of a wallet is by signing a specified message with your private key, or by sending a micro transaction (a few Satoshi) to a predefined crypto-address.     

4. Contact law enforcement and report

If you think you or someone you know has been a victim of fraud, it is important to notify the applicable law enforcement or government agency. Reporting mechanisms for cybercrimes such as crypto scams may vary from country to country. Below is a sample list of available resources you can use to report the incident in various countries: 

Country

Reporting Mechanism

United States

Go to your local police station to report a crime, or to FBI’s Internet Crime and Complaint Center (IC3) or to the Federal Trade Commission at the Federal Trade Commission.

European Union

Europol is a great resource in Europe for finding the reporting website of your country: For member states without a dedicated online option in place, Europol recommends going to your local police station to lodge a complaint.

Canada

Refer to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and report online. 

Singapore

Refer to Singapore’s National Crime Prevention Council’s Scam Alert page .

Dubai/Abu Dhabi

Report online through the eCrime website, or Aman service– Abu Dhabi Police, or Dubai Police’s website.

Australia

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission provides a variety of contact details to report serious or organized crime activity.

Argentina

The Unidad de Información Financiera (UIF) provides a link to instructions on Suspicious Activity Reports. There are no formal guidance on how to proceed with reporting crypto scams.

Colombia 

Report via the Unidad de Información y Análisis Financiero. There are no formal guidance on how to proceed with reporting crypto scams.

Brazil

Report in person via a local police station, or alternatively report online via the Civil Police DEIC “Departamento Estadual de Investigações Criminais” portal.  

Japan

Report in person via a local police station. 

 If I follow the above steps, will I get my funds back? 

The process may be challenging, time consuming and may not always guarantee the recovery of the lost funds. Sometimes people are just not going to get their crypto back. 

The U.S. Department of Justice in a June 2022 report highlighted some of these challenges: the speed and cross-border nature of digital asset transactions; differences in how various foreign law enforcement agencies classify digital assets, platforms and Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs); the lack of specialized skills and expertise regarding digital assets; and the lack of access to effective blockchain analytics and cryptocurrency investigation tools. Nevertheless, lodging your complaint with your federal government will increase your chances of asset recovery if a larger investigation is ever opened against your scammer.

The probability of a successful asset recovery also depends on additional factors including the amount lost, obfuscation techniques used and whether the funds have moved to a regulated exchange, which makes it easier for a law enforcement agency to reveal the identity of the receiving address via a subpoena.  

CipherTrace Professional Services can assist you with every aspect of the recovery, from investigation to helping law enforcement write their subpoenas to testifying in support of our analysis. For larger losses exceeding $1 million, you can use the investigations@ciphertrace.com email set aside for such inquiries.

You sent

Nice article from Mastercard: https://ciphertrace.com/how-to-get-bitcoin-back-from-scammer/#:~:text=Go%20to%20your%20local%20police,at%20the%20Federal%20Trade%20Commission.

What to do when you fall victim to a crypto scam – CipherTrace

What to do when you fall victim to a crypto scam – CipherTrace