Recovery scams — sometimes called "secondary fraud" — target people who have already been defrauded once. They prey on the desperation that follows a major loss. The good news is they are almost always disqualified by the same seven questions.
Print this list. Use it on us, on the next firm you speak to, and on the one after that. A real recovery firm welcomes every question on it.
Question 1. "Show me your business registration."
The firm should be able to send you, by email, a copy of their certificate of incorporation, or point you to the exact entry on the registry website. UK firms: Companies House. US firms: the relevant Secretary of State. The registry lookup should confirm the entity exists, the directors, and the registered office.
Red flag: "We are registered, but the registry website is down at the moment." It is never down.
Question 2. "How are your fees structured, and when am I billed?"
A real recovery firm has a fee structure that fits on one page. Usually: a fixed-fee investigation report up front, then a clearly disclosed blend of retainer and success element for fieldwork. Success-only firms are also fine. What is not fine is opacity, "we will tell you later", or "fees depend on the situation".
Red flag: "We invoice the success fee in cryptocurrency."
Question 3. "What does my engagement letter look like?"
Ask for a sample engagement letter before you commit to anything. It should be a standard PDF, on the firm's letterhead, signed by a director, with a scope statement, a budget, a confidentiality clause, and your termination rights. If you are sent a Word file from a personal email, walk away.
Question 4. "Who, by name, will own my case?"
A real firm gives you a named senior analyst on the intake call. That person can describe their own background — banking dispute, AML, digital forensics, regulatory enforcement — and should be the same person you correspond with later.
Red flag: "Cases are assigned by the system."
Question 5. "What will the investigation report contain?"
The firm should be able to describe the structure of the investigation report in advance: identified counterparty, route of loss, payment-rail analysis, recovery-instrument recommendation, honest probability assessment. If they cannot or will not describe it, you are not buying a report — you are buying hope.
Question 6. "What happens if you recover nothing?"
The honest answer is some version of: "You receive a written closure pack explaining where the case stalled and what evidence you keep for a future advisor. You will have paid only the disclosed intake fee, plus any agreed retainer." Anything more aggressive than that — especially "we always recover" — is sales rhetoric, not work.
Question 7. "Can I speak to a previous client?"
Reputable firms maintain a list of past clients who have agreed, in writing, to speak to prospective clients. Not testimonials on a website — a real human you can phone. We do this. So do most serious firms. Operators that promise but never deliver this reference are flagged in our own internal advisory.
The bonus question we wish more clients asked
"What does your refusal policy look like?" A real firm refuses cases. They refuse them at intake when the evidence does not support fieldwork. They refuse them mid-matter when new facts emerge that change the picture. They tell you, in writing, why. A firm that has never refused a case is not a firm — it is a sales operation.
If a firm's answer to any of these questions is evasive, vague, or routes back to "trust us", that is the answer. Trust is earned by transparency, not by reassurance.