Scammed with cryptocurrency or a fake broker: what to do today

The first few hours matter more than any later written document: an immediate transfer arrives in seconds and the scammer moves the money as soon as they receive it. The order is to cut contact, notify the bank, save the evidence and report it.

Cut contact: do not make one more payment, even if they tell you it is to unblock your balance, pay taxes or a withdrawal commission. Asking you for new money to return yours is the clearest sign of a scam. If they made you install a remote control programme (AnyDesk, TeamViewer or similar), uninstall it, change your banking and exchange passwords and activate two-factor authentication.

Notify the bank: call the blocking telephone number and then put it in writing. Ask them to try to recover the transfer from the receiving bank, to initiate a chargeback if you paid by card and to keep the transaction records.

Save the evidence and report it: we explain this below. With a police report number, blocking the destination account has a higher chance of success.

It depends on one question: did you order the payment or did someone else? The payment services law (Real Decreto-ley 19/2018) strongly protects unauthorised transactions. If the bank does not prove that you acted fraudulently or with gross negligence, it must refund the amount to you by the end of the following business day after the notice at the latest, unless it communicates reasonable grounds to suspect fraud to the Bank of Spain (art. 45). And the simple record that your passwords were used is not enough to prove that you authorised the transaction or that you were negligent: that burden of proof falls on the bank (art. 44).

A very frequent case with fake brokers fits here: transfers that you did not order were made from a remote access programme, or they tricked you into giving them the confirmation codes. Without gross negligence on your part, the maximum you bear is €50 (art. 46).

If you made the transfer yourself under deception, the transaction is authorised and that regime does not simply apply. Even so, there is room: from 9 October 2025 the bank must check the beneficiary's name against the IBAN before you authorise a transfer in euros (beneficiary verification). If it did not offer you that check or it failed, it is liable to you; if it warned you that the name did not match and you went ahead, it is not liable through that route. Save the confirmation screen for each transfer.

The notice to the bank must be given without delay and, at most, within the 13 months following the charge. Do not push that limit: notifying late without reason, even within the 13 months, can cost you the refund.

The formal claim goes to the bank's customer service department, which for payment services has 15 business days to reply (up to one month in exceptional cases: art. 69). If it replies poorly or does not reply, it is escalated to the Claims Service of the Bank of Spain, which is free. That prior claim also serves as the negotiation attempt that the law requires before a civil lawsuit (disposición adicional séptima de la Ley Orgánica 1/2025). Managora drafts it and submits it with the claim form to your bank before the Bank of Spain.

There is no button to undo a blockchain transaction. The trail can indeed be followed: every transfer has a public hash and every wallet leaves a trace. If the money ended up in an exchange that identifies its clients, that exchange can block the receiving account and keep the account holder's details when requested by the police or a court.

That is why the blocking request is sent with the police report number, the hash of each transfer, the origin and destination addresses, the date and the amount. EU crypto-asset providers must accompany transfers with data of the sender and the receiver (Reglamento (UE) 2023/1113), which helps identify the account holder. If the destination is a private wallet or a non-EU exchange that does not cooperate, the chances drop significantly.

If you bought the cryptocurrencies on a legitimate exchange and sent them to the scammer from there, that exchange is not in principle liable for a transfer you ordered. It is a different matter if it blocks your account, does not return your balance, allows transactions you did not make or loses assets it was holding: providers with custody must separate their clients' crypto-assets and are liable for their loss due to incidents attributable to them (art. 75 MiCA). That is claimed with the claim form to a cryptocurrency exchange or platform.

Search for the exact name and website in the CNMV registers and in its warning list of unauthorised entities (financial boiler rooms). In Spain, the MiCA transitional period ended on 1 July 2026: providing crypto-asset services requires authorisation from the CNMV or a passport from another EU State, and nobody without authorisation can use a name or advertising suggesting otherwise (art. 59.5 MiCA). Copies of real entities' websites are common: compare the domain, not the logo.

If the entity is authorised, there is a claim route. First before its claims service, which is free, must provide you with a template and accept the claim in the languages in which it sells its services to you (art. 71 MiCA and Reglamento Delegado (UE) 2025/294). Afterwards, before the CNMV Claims Service. For a broker or investment entity, the claim form to an investment entity before the CNMV; for an exchange, the claim form to a cryptocurrency exchange or platform.

If it is not authorised, it is not a claim: it is a scam. The CNMV does not resolve claims against those it does not supervise, but it is advisable to report the entity to them so they include it in their warnings. The correct procedure is to file a police report, claim from your bank and request a block on whoever received the money: the claim plan after an investment scam. And do not count on FOGAIN: it covers the insolvency of member investment companies, not crypto-assets or boiler rooms.

Scamming is a crime (art. 248 del Código Penal), and so is obtaining an unconsented transfer through computer manipulation (art. 249). It is reported at a National Police station, a Civil Guard station or the duty court. Both forces also accept online reports for some crimes; in the National Police, the online report is ratified at the chosen station within 72 hours to be valid. Reporting is free, and you can do it in Spain even if the scammer is in another country.

What you must gather: receipts for each transfer or charge with the IBAN and the recipient's name; screenshots of the platform with the URL, the balance and the supposed company's name; WhatsApp, Telegram or email conversations, exported with the date; telephone numbers, profiles and adverts that recruited you; the hash of each transfer and the wallet addresses. Export the chats now: the scammer usually deletes the account as soon as they stop getting money from you.

Managora drafts the police report ready to submit, with the timeline and evidence organised, with the online police report form to the National Police or Civil Guard. Managora does not handle criminal cases: we do not file criminal complaints (querellas) nor assume the defence in criminal proceedings; the investigation belongs to the police and the court.

After the first scam, the second usually arrives. Someone presents themselves as a fund recovery agency, ethical hacker, foreign law firm, the platform itself, the police or even the CNMV, says they have located your money and will return it after paying an official fee (tasa), an insurance, taxes or a commission. They have your details because they are the same scammers or because they bought them.

The signs: upfront payment, in cryptocurrencies or to a private individual's account; guarantee of recovering everything; rush; request to install a remote control programme or for your passwords; messages via WhatsApp or Telegram on behalf of a public body. No organisation charges you to return your money, and no blockchain transaction is reversed by paying a third party.

If you already paid one of them, add it to your police report as a new fact and notify your bank just like with the first payment.

With the claim plan after an investment, trading or cryptocurrency scam we take care of everything that can be done outside the courts, in a fixed package: case analysis and timeline with the organised evidence; written submission to your bank for the transfer recovery or chargeback, record keeping and, if applicable, beneficiary verification; formal request to the receiving bank or exchange for the precautionary block and preservation of the account holder's data; the police report ready to submit; the notification to the CNMV if the entity is not authorised; and guidance for the Income Tax return (Renta). You can see the updated amount on the form.

It does not include a criminal complaint (querella) or lawsuit. If upon studying your case we see grounds to claim in court against the bank or the destination account holder, we will quote you separately. And we do not promise to recover the money: we tell you what can be claimed, from whom and within what timeframe, and we submit it for you.

If your problem is with an authorised exchange (blocked withdrawals, balance not returned, a transaction you do not recognise, a hack of assets in custody), your form is the claim to a cryptocurrency exchange or platform: we claim before its claims service and, if it denies or does not reply, before the CNMV. If the platform is not authorised or demands taxes to withdraw, it is the scam plan.

It can be reflected in the tax return, but having lost it is not enough: the IRPF (Personal Income Tax) law does not allow deducting unjustified losses (art. 33.5 of Ley 35/2006). In practice, the police report alone is not usually enough, and the financial year in which the loss is allocated depends on whether there is an identified person to claim against and how the procedure advances. The Directorate-General for Taxes has analysed cases of fraudulent cryptocurrency platforms (rulings V1579-22 and V0780-24).

Do not include it on your own without reviewing it. Save the proof of payment and the police report, and read Managora's guide on how to declare money lost in a scam on your Income Tax return (Renta).