While cryptocurrencies have been considered very secure, they can still be robbed and to find stolen cryptocurrency is a long tiring task in itself.
This can happen if an individual hacks your exchange account and leaves your account with no assets, possibly after you performed transactions with someone using a false identity, or if you were dealing with a fraudulent organization.
Per Kaspersky’s recent survey, nineteen percent (19%) of the survey population claimed that their exchange accounts were hacked, while another fifteen percent (15%) claimed that they had been subject to cryptocurrency frauds.
Security and Law experts have helped gather a list of things one could consider doing if they had their crypto assets stolen.
Find Stolen Cryptocurrency – Respond Quickly
Firstly, you will need to respond very quickly so that you can track down your stolen crypto assets.
Benjamin Sauter, who is a law expert with experience in digital theft cases, has explained that waiting to act will allow thieves to gain an excess of time for transferring the cryptocurrency to cold storage, other exchanges or mix them up using tumblers.
Giving more time to thieves will make it more difficult for you to track down the mixed up crypto assets.
If the assets are kept inside the exchange, you will have to ring the exchange and get your assets frozen, which may get you excessive time. While doing this may cost you more of your funds as you will have to hire a lawyer who can persuade the court to get your funds frozen.
Even if you don’t possess any more assets, you should still try contacting the exchange.
Find stolen cryptocurrency – Figuring out who stole them
The authorities will require the thief’s identity before they can recover your assets. Marc Jones, a partner at Stewarts Law has explained that authorities require the identities of thieves to enforce the payment of any damages that were caused, which is why you require the thief’s identity.
Blockchain cryptocurrencies allow users to know where the crypto tokens have gone. So if the assets have been to an exchange, then it won’t be difficult for one to know the crypto wallet owner’s identity.
Know Your Customer (KTC) checks are utilized by exchanges. These checks make clients give identification details to the exchanges, which is where you hire a lawyer to persuade the court.
Funds are scattered by the exchanges for liquidity, which is why it is difficult to figure out the identities of coin owners, while mixers are used by people to mix up the identities of assets.
Although mixers are always effective, in 2015, Korean scientists discovered that the Helix mixer wasn’t as fruitful as everybody believed it to be.
The mixer’s addresses were successfully identified by the scientists with an accuracy of over ninety-nine percent (99%).
While there are organizations that help clients find and track down crypto assets after charging them a fee. The companies track the path of the crypto assets through public keys. Then the companies analyze this data to figure out the identities of wallet owners.
Chainalysis is a company that provides similar services. The company’s clients include the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
