Falsely Accused in a Crypto Scam? What to Do Next

I was a federal prosecutor for a decade, and I focused on complex cyber and crypto cases. I will be the first to tell you that no matter how sophisticated investigators are, sometimes they get it wrong. Here is what to do if you are falsely accused of participating in a crypto scam.

Linked Is Not the Same as Guilty

You open your exchange app and your account is frozen. Or a letter arrives from a federal agency asking about a wallet you control. Or a civil complaint names you as a recipient of stolen funds. In each case, the message is the same: someone looked at the blockchain and drew a line from a crypto scam to you.

That line may be wrong. Blockchain records are permanent and public, but the conclusions people draw from them are not. Investigators, exchanges, and private analytics firms rely on software that groups wallets into clusters and assigns risk scores. That software makes assumptions. When those assumptions fail, innocent people end up flagged alongside the actual wrongdoers.

If you have been accused of involvement in a crypto scam you had nothing to do with, what you do in the first days matters. This article explains how innocent wallets get linked to fraud and the steps you should take to protect yourself.