Recovery scams share a recognizable anatomy. Contact is unsolicited and informed: the caller already knows you lost money, because victim lists are traded among criminals. The assessment is free and confident, the first fee is modest, and each subsequent payment is presented as the last. By the time the pattern becomes obvious, the second loss often exceeds the first.
Certain requests are disqualifying on their own: upfront fees before any work, payment in cryptocurrency or gift cards, wallet seed phrases or private keys, remote access to your computer, or claims of government affiliation. Real regulators and law-enforcement agencies do not charge victims for recovery, and no legitimate investigator needs your keys. One of these signals is enough to end the conversation.