SEAMUS MANLEY INVESTIGATIONS · PRACTICAL GUIDE
A clear record of what happened gives your bank, an investigator and the relevant authorities something concrete to assess. Start with the evidence you already have, rather than paying another person to unlock a promised balance.
Build your evidence file · Choose a reporting route · Read a warning correctly · Avoid impersonators
Build an evidence file someone else can follow
Write a short timeline: how the contact began, which platform you used, each payment, the first withdrawal request and the response. Separate what you personally observed from what the operator told you. An account balance shown on a dashboard and money received in your own account are different pieces of evidence.
- Identity: exact website addresses, company names, account-manager names, email addresses and social profiles used in the contact.
- Payments: dated statements, receipts, beneficiary details and payment references. Keep original copies.
- Crypto transactions: the network, asset, amount, sending and receiving addresses, date and time, and transaction hash. A wallet address alone does not identify its owner.
- Communications: exports of chats and emails, fee demands, withdrawal refusals and any instructions to install remote-access software.
- Platform records: screenshots showing the address bar, account activity and withdrawal messages. Record when each screenshot was taken.
Make an index of the files rather than sending an unexplained folder. Do not put passwords, wallet seed phrases or private keys in an evidence file or contact form. The FBI identifies detailed transaction information as particularly important in cryptocurrency reports. Read the FBI’s guidance of 24 August 2023.
Choose the route that matches the payment and location
Contact your bank, card provider or exchange promptly through its own official channel. Explain what happened, identify the transactions and ask what dispute or fraud-reporting options apply. Availability depends on the payment method, jurisdiction and deadlines; a report does not automatically reverse a transfer.
Report suspected crime to the appropriate authority where you live. In the United States, FBI IC3 accepts internet-crime reports. For concerns about UK financial firms, use the FCA’s official reporting guidance. For another country, use that jurisdiction’s official regulator or police website. A regulator complaint, a criminal report and a bank dispute serve different purposes; keep their reference numbers together.
Match the warning to the exact operation
Read the original regulator entry, not only a search-result snippet. Check its name, domain, address, warning category and original date. A warning about a clone must be distinguished from the legitimate firm it imitates. Historical website addresses identify the operation named at that time; they are not recommendations to visit or log in.
Our case pages bring together the named operation’s details and available warning records. Their platform-specific reports belong on those pages. This guide collects the general evidence and reporting steps so they do not need to be repeated in every article.
Protect yourself from a second approach
The FCA warns that people who have lost money may be approached again by callers offering recovery for an upfront fee. Treat unexpected offers, urgent demands and claimed government connections with caution. Read the FCA’s recovery-room warning.
Tracing transactions does not itself give a private company authority to seize funds or compel an exchange to release them. The FBI explains this distinction in its 11 August 2023 recovery-scheme alert. Outcomes depend on the evidence, the institutions involved and the available legal process.
Educational information, not individual legal or financial advice. Sources reviewed 10 October 2026.