Somebody has already lost money to a fake wallet or broker. Then a second team arrives with a new costume: your coins touched United States exchanges, so you cannot use them until you complete “consular legalisation”. The legalisation itself, they say, is free — you just need a deposit of a few thousand dollars to clear intermediate confirmations. Refuse, and they threaten to report you to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
That is not how consular legalisation works. Consulates and apostille offices deal with paper documents — birth certificates, powers of attorney — so a foreign court or registry will accept them. They do not “unlock” Bitcoin, approve exchange withdrawals, or run a 24-hour side channel through a third-party chat. Real tax authorities do not collect unlock deposits from strangers on messaging apps, and they do not take tip-offs from the same people who emptied the account.
The deposit figure is the point. Once paid, a new “instance” or “compliance layer” appears, then another. Classic advance-fee recovery: each payment is sold as the last one.
If you see this script, stop sending money. Check any document against the real website of the named authority, not a PDF in the chat. Wallet and seed-phrase requests are a hard stop.
If this matches an approach you have seen, start at Get help. If someone is already selling “recovery”, read Fake recovery before you pay another fee.
This article is for general information only. It is not legal or financial advice. Details change. If you have lost money, contact your bank or card issuer and use the routes on the help pages.