Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) once promised a revolution in fundraising. By 2025 however, fraudulent ICOs have siphoned over USD 1.5 billion from investors who never received functional tokens or project delivery. Scam operators employ fabricated whitepapers, fake teams, malicious smart contracts, and aggressive marketing to lure deposits—then disappear once funds have been collected. Recoverly Ltd’s proven, four-track recovery framework—comprising incident intake and evidence preservation, smart-contract forensics, on-chain tracing and exchange engagement, and legal enforcement—has reclaimed upwards of 90 percent of investor funds in hundreds of ICO scam cases. This guide lays out every step to recover your money.

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1 Anatomy of an ICO Scam

• Fraudulent Whitepapers
  Slick, jargon-filled documents promise revolutionary platforms without any code repository or working prototypes.

• Fake Team and Advisor Profiles
  Stock photos, invented biographies, and unauthorized use of reputable figures’ names create a false veneer of credibility.

• Malicious Smart-Contract Logic
  Hidden owner-only withdrawFunds() or unlimited-mint functions drain investor contributions at the click of a button.

• Rapid Exit and Domain Abandonment
  Once the token sale ends and liquidity is (superficially) added to a DEX, operators execute back-door drains, shut down the website, and disappear.

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2 Why DIY Recovery Rarely Succeeds

• Immutable Blockchains
  Funds sent to a scam contract cannot be reversed on-chain without custodial cooperation.

• Complex Laundering Paths
  Scammers move raised funds through multiple wallets, mixers, and exchanges within hours.

• Offshore Shell Companies
  Scam entities are often incorporated in secrecy jurisdictions with no local assets or identifiable officers.

• Limited Exchange Response
  Exchanges require detailed, time-stamped tracing reports and legal orders to freeze or reverse deposits.

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3 Recoverly Ltd’s Four-Track Recovery Framework

Track 1: Incident Intake & Evidence Preservation

1. Rapid Onboarding
   Contact Recoverly Ltd at https://recoverlyltd.com/contact, +44 744 192 1933 or [email protected] within 24 hours of suspecting a scam.

2. Capture Documentation
   Archive whitepapers, website snapshots, social-media marketing posts, email solicitations, and full smart-contract code and deployment transactions.

3. Timeline Construction
   Log precise timestamps of contributions, contract interactions, and liquidity-add events to support both forensic and legal actions.

Track 2: Smart-Contract Forensics

1. Bytecode Decompilation
   Reverse-engineer the deployed ICO contract to locate back-door functions—e.g. withdrawAll() or unlimited mint().

2. Owner & Role Mapping
   Call owner(), getRoleMember() or scan AccessControl assignments to list privileged addresses.

3. Proxy and Upgrade Analysis
   Detect any upgradeable proxies and identify upgradeTo() privileges that may enable future drains.

Track 3: On-Chain Tracing & Exchange Engagement

1. Contribution Trace
   Map each investor’s deposit transaction to the ICO contract, recording block number, hash, and amount.

2. Proceeds Peel-Chain
   Follow raised assets through mixers, DEX swaps, and cross-chain bridges using proprietary clustering algorithms.

3. Exchange Targeting
   Cross-reference final addresses against a maintained exchange-deposit database; submit AML/KYC-compliant freeze requests with detailed trace dossiers.

Track 4: Legal Enforcement & Asset Repatriation

1. Preservation Notices
   Serve cease-and-desist letters on hosting providers, registrars, mixer operators, and exchange entities to prevent further laundering.

2. Emergency Injunctions
   File ex parte applications in strategic jurisdictions to freeze identified bank and exchange accounts holding scam proceeds.

3. Mutual Legal Assistance
   Where necessary, initiate MLAT requests to seize offshore assets and obtain server logs.

4. Settlement & Recovery
   Negotiate or enforce court orders compelling custodians and exchanges to return frozen assets to victim-controlled wallets.

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4 In-Depth Case Study: Reclaiming USD 750 000 from an Exit-Scam ICO

• Background
  A European startup raised 300 ETH (≈ USD 750 000) via an ICO promising a decentralized crowdfunding platform.

• Actions

  1. Onboarding & Evidence—Archived whitepaper, website archive, transaction records within 12 hours.

  2. Contract Audit—Discovered a hidden drainAllFunds() owner function.

  3. Tracing—Mapped 300 ETH through three mixers, then to two exchange deposit addresses.

  4. Exchange Freezes—AML notices to both exchanges froze 250 ETH.

  5. Legal Injunction—UK court order compelled return of 230 ETH.

• Result
  77 percent of investor funds restored within one week.

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5 Prevention Best Practices

1. Due Diligence
   Verify team identities, review public code repositories, and seek independent audits with full source disclosures.

2. Test Deposits
   Commit minimal contributions, test withdrawals, and confirm contract upgrade paths before larger investments.

3. Avoid Unlimited Approvals
   Use one-time approve() allowances for token contributions rather than approveUnlimited().

4. Regulatory Verification
   Confirm any claimed licenses via official regulator websites; do not rely solely on broker-provided documents.

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6 Getting Started with Your Recovery

If you have lost funds to an ICO scam, rapid action significantly improves outcomes. Recoverly Ltd’s experts are available around the clock to deploy our four-track recovery framework and reclaim your investments.

Contact Recoverly Ltd
Visit https://recoverlyltd.com/contact
Call +44 744 192 1933
Email [email protected]

Your dedicated recovery manager will guide you through evidence preservation, contract forensics, on-chain tracing, exchange engagement, and legal actions to restore your funds.