The first act is familiar: a fake trading terminal locks a withdrawal, the “manager” vanishes, the painted balance stays on screen. Then a helper appears — sometimes under a thin brand such as “Kryuk” lawyers — claiming the funds have been located on the Gate exchange and can be returned for a success fee, often quoted as about ten per cent after recovery. A follow-up email pretends to be Gate support, attaches “access keys”, and asks you to open a wallet or follow a link. That combination is a recovery room, not an exchange compliance desk.
Legitimate asset tracing needs wallet addresses and transaction hashes you can look up on a block explorer. A lawyer who “already found” coins without those details is selling hope. Gate, like other exchanges, will not send random victims private keys by email from a mismatched domain. Open support only through the official site you typed yourself. A success-fee pitch that later mutates into AML tax, network gas, insurance or “activation” is the same advance-fee pattern the FBI and other agencies warn about for fictitious crypto law firms.
Keep the chats with the original desk and the recovery contact, the email headers, wallet addresses and hashes. Tell your bank if cards were used; file a police report; do not open wallets from stranger links or share seed phrases. Use Get help for reporting paths, and read Fake recovery before you answer another crest-stamped letter.
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.