Scammed by a Crypto Project? Here's Where to Report It, Country by Country
Blockchain and crypto are, in our view, one of the best tools built so far for expanding people’s financial freedom. But every technology that expands freedom expands the reach of bad actors too. The internet expanded everyone’s access to information — and also gave scammers and fake news a bigger megaphone. Crypto is no different: it expands financial freedom, and it expands scammers’ ability to reach victims globally, instantly, and often with little accountability.
If you’ve lost funds to a fraudulent token sale, a fake presale, a “guaranteed returns” scheme, or a project that turned out to be nothing like its marketing promised, reporting it matters — even if you don’t expect to recover your funds. Reports build the paper trail that regulators, exchanges, and investigators use to freeze wallets, warn other victims, and eventually bring cases against the people running these schemes.
Red flags worth recognizing
Before the reporting steps, a few patterns show up in most crypto scams:
- Guaranteed or unrealistic returns — no legitimate investment guarantees a fixed return, especially not a high one.
- Manufactured urgency — “presale closing in hours,” countdown timers, pressure to buy before you’ve had time to check anything.
- Anonymous or unverifiable teams — no real names, no verifiable track record, stock photos used as “team members.”
- Copied or vague whitepapers — technical documents that don’t hold up to scrutiny, or are lifted from other projects.
- No independent audit, or a fake one — claims of an audit that doesn’t exist, or one from a firm with no real reputation.
Projects that draw large volumes of scam complaints, class-action interest, and warnings from independent crypto watchdogs — reporting has flagged projects like BlockDAG as examples — are worth researching thoroughly before you send any funds, and worth reporting to the authorities below if you already have.
What to do immediately
- Stop sending funds. If you’re still in contact with the project or a “recovery agent,” stop. Recovery scams targeting existing scam victims are extremely common.
- Save everything. Screenshots of the website, wallet addresses, transaction hashes, chat logs, marketing emails, and any promises made. This evidence is what makes a report actionable.
- Contact your exchange. If you sent funds through a centralized exchange, contact their support/fraud team immediately — some can flag or freeze a destination wallet if you act fast.
- Report it — to the platforms below, and to the authorities in your country.
Where to report, by country
United States
- FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center: ic3.gov
- Federal Trade Commission: reportfraud.ftc.gov
- CFTC (for commodity/derivatives-related fraud): cftc.gov/complaint
United Kingdom
- Action Fraud: actionfraud.police.uk
European Union
- Report to your national police’s cybercrime unit — most EU countries have a dedicated online cybercrime reporting portal. Europol coordinates cross-border cases but does not take individual reports directly.
Canada
- Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre: antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca
Australia
- Scamwatch (ACCC): scamwatch.gov.au
- ASIC (for investment scams): asic.gov.au
Singapore
- Singapore Police Force e-service , or call the ScamShield helpline (1799)
- Monetary Authority of Singapore for regulated-entity concerns: mas.gov.sg
India
- National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal: cybercrime.gov.in , or call 1930
United Arab Emirates
- eCrime, UAE Ministry of Interior’s federal cybercrime reporting platform: ecrime.ae
China
- Report to your local 公安机关 (Public Security Bureau), or via the national illegal-information reporting line 12377
South Korea
- Cyber Bureau of the Korean National Police Agency: ecrm.police.go.kr , or call 112
Japan
- Your local prefectural police’s cybercrime consultation desk (都道府県警察のサイバー犯罪相談窓口), or the Consumer Hotline: 188
Vietnam
- Your local police (công an), or the Authority of Information Security (A05, Ministry of Public Security)
If your country isn’t listed here, search for “[your country] cybercrime reporting” or “[your country] financial fraud reporting” — most national police forces and financial regulators now have a dedicated channel for this.
It’s worth doing, even if recovery isn’t guaranteed
Reporting a scam rarely gets your funds back on its own. But it does three things that matter: it creates a record investigators can act on, it helps exchanges and regulators identify repeat offenders faster, and it warns the next person before they send their own funds. If you’ve been scammed, you’re not the only one — and your report may be the one that connects the dots.
Being boring and simple, in our view, is also a form of protection: infrastructure that doesn’t overpromise, doesn’t rush you, and doesn’t need hype to make its case is infrastructure worth trusting more, not less.