By 2023, one of the fastest-growing forms of fraud was not fake trading platforms—it was fake recovery companies. These operations prey specifically on people who have already been scammed once, targeting them at their most vulnerable moment. Instead…
One of the most misunderstood parts of investigative work is the fact that not every case can be accepted. This is not a sign of unwillingness to help—it’s a core professional responsibility. By 2023, we saw a sharp…
In 2022, we handled one of our most technically challenging Ethereum investigations to date. A client’s MetaMask wallet had been compromised after interacting with a fake support chat—a tactic that became increasingly common as scammers learned how to…
For many years, our Colorado Springs office was the center of everything we did. It supported early financial investigations, hundreds of client consultations, and the foundational crypto cases that shaped our modern workflow. But by 2022, it became…
By 2021, scam networks were no longer operating from a handful of isolated wallet addresses. Instead, they were using large clusters of wallets, automated movement patterns, and chain-hopping sequences designed to conceal ownership and disrupt straightforward tracing. To…
By 2020, one red flag became so consistent across fraudulent trading platforms that it often allowed us to identify a scam within minutes: the demand for a fee before releasing a withdrawal. These so-called verification fees appeared under…
Seamus Manley content is informational and investigative. Nothing on this site constitutes financial advice.
Outcomes depend on blockchain finality, jurisdiction, and third-party cooperation. Anyone promising instant, guaranteed recovery up-front, in crypto, without written terms — should be treated as a follow-up scam.
Sources: account-holder reports, OSINT, blockchain analytics, and regulator actions (ASIC, BaFin, FCA, SEC, CFTC, FINRA, IC3). Corrections: /submit-a-case/.