Trust
How to tell a real law firm from a recovery room
A functioning law firm can be verified independently, in minutes, through public bar and court registers. A recovery room cannot survive that check. It depends on urgency, an upfront fee, and a promise that avoids any register entirely. This page sets out what regulators have documented about that pattern, and what to check before anyone is paid.
Markers
Regulators in several jurisdictions have published near-identical descriptions of firms that promise to recover money lost after a refused withdrawal or a frozen account. The pattern repeats across cases:
- An unsolicited approach, usually shortly after the original refusal, often referencing details the caller should not have.
- A fee requested before any file is reviewed, described as a release, processing, or tax cost.
- No lawyer named, or a name that cannot be matched to any bar or law society register.
- Pressure to act within days, tied to a claim that a recovery window is closing.
- An outcome presented as certain or near-certain before any file has been seen.
The FBI has issued three successive public warnings on this pattern, most recently in August 2025 (F053). The UK Financial Conduct Authority keeps a standing recovery room warning current (F054). NASAA has published a separate advisory covering the same mechanism in crypto cases (F055). The Belgian FSMA has publicly named specific firms operating this way, and noted the risk of a second loss layered on the first (F056).
How to check any firm
None of the following requires a lawyer to confirm. Each can be checked directly, before any payment is discussed.
- Search the named lawyer on the bar or law society register for the jurisdiction claimed, not through a link supplied by the firm itself.
- Confirm a physical registered office address, not a virtual mailbox or a serviced address with no fixed occupant.
- Ask for an engagement letter that sets out scope and fee structure before any money changes hands.
- Check whether payment is requested in crypto, gift cards, or to a personal account rather than a firm client account.
- Look at how a first file review is structured before assuming any fee sequence is standard practice.
Check us by the same criteria
Apply the same checks here. Verify any lawyer named in correspondence with us against the relevant bar or law society register directly, not through a link we supply. Confirm the registered office independently. Ask for an engagement letter before any payment is discussed, and read it before signing anything. Verification through an independent source, not through us, is the point of this page.