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Fraud types

Eight categories, eight different recovery routes

What works for a business email compromise is useless for a romance scam. The route, the deadline, and the odds all depend on the type — start by finding yours.

Index

Each of the eight is set out below, with its warning signs and the recovery route that applies to it.

Index

Find your situation

Each page covers the warning signs, how we approach recovery for that category, and what makes cases in it succeed or fail.

Time-critical

Business email compromise is measured in hours, not weeks

A wire that has just settled can often be recalled. The same wire a week later usually cannot. If a fraudulent transfer left your organisation's account in the last 48 hours, call rather than email.

Recognition

The signs that repeat across categories

Whatever the fraud, the same handful of pressures show up. If you are being pushed on any of these, slow down.

Signal 01

Urgency

A deadline you did not set. Pressure to act before you can verify anything is the single most reliable indicator of fraud there is.
Signal 02

Unverifiable claims

Returns, endorsements, registration numbers, or track records you cannot check against an independent source.
Signal 03

An unusual payment route

Bank transfer or cryptocurrency requested instead of a method with dispute protection. That request is the mechanism of the fraud.
Signal 04

Contact you did not initiate

An offer that arrived unbidden — by call, message, social media advertisement, or a platform you had never heard of last month.
Signal 05

Difficulty withdrawing

Withdrawals stall, or each attempt triggers a new fee. Money goes in easily and comes out only after paying more.
Signal 06

A story that shifts

Small details change over time. Individually explainable, collectively a pattern.
Next

Not sure which category you fall into?

Most people aren't, and it rarely matters for the first conversation. Describe what happened and we will work out the typology from there.