The Affiliate Networks Funnelling Fraud Victims Into a Second Scam
People who lost money to investment fraud are being routed to paid 'asset recovery' services by the same advertising infrastructure that sold them the first pitch.
Search for the name of a collapsed trading platform alongside the word recovery and the results are dominated by firms promising to trace and return stolen funds for an upfront fee. Bitcoin Bounty Hunter mapped the infrastructure behind eleven of them.
Seven shared a single analytics identifier. Five routed enquiry forms to the same messaging endpoint. Two used contact numbers that had previously appeared in the marketing material of the very platforms whose victims they now solicit.
How the second approach works
The pitch is procedural rather than greedy. A caller cites a case reference, describes a freeze order at a foreign exchange, and asks for a modest administrative payment to release funds. Victims interviewed for this story described it as the first time since the original loss that anyone had sounded organised.
Recovered funds, in every case documented here, amounted to nothing. The average additional loss among the nine victims who shared records was just under four thousand dollars.
Two advertising platforms removed listings after being shown this reporting. Within nine days, near-identical listings appeared under new domains registered through the same privacy-shielded registrar.
About the author
Priya Raman is Policy Correspondent at Bitcoin Bounty Hunter. Priya Raman covers financial regulation from Washington and Brussels. She is a former legislative aide on a Senate banking subcommittee.
Last updated Aug 13, 2026, 06:30 AM UTC · Spotted an error? Request a correction
