Key Takeaways
- Non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet Asset Reality, an end-to-end solution for recovering, managing, and accessing seized crypto assets and complex assets, has recently signed a strategic partnership with MetaMask.
- Asset Reality will do the legwork to build an investigation into the scam’s operations, tremendously increasing the chances of restoring the funds and bringing the scammers to justice.
- Victims must still report their losses via the official MetaMask platform.
ConsenSys’ renowned self-custody wallet, MetaMask, unveiled its latest strategic partnership with Asset Reality, an end-to-end solution for recovering, managing, and retrieving seized crypto and complex assets.
According to Alex Herman, MetaMask’s support product lead, the company receives a high volume of ticket queries pertaining to losses, many of which include fraudsters carrying out phishing attacks or perpetrating social engineering of some kind.
In recent years, economic activity on web3 has grown at an exponential rate. While this growth has piqued the interest of a number of highly novel applications that will help reframe the vision of financial services and the inventor economy, it has also piqued the interest of internet scammers and thieves.
Through this collaboration, MetaMask and Asset Reality will help victims of scams recover as much of their digital assets as possible.
“We wanted to give users something more than a handshake and good luck at the end of our interaction,” Herman explained in an interview. “By partnering with Asset Reality, users can begin an investigation to try and hunt down their stolen funds, which could lead to a recovery down the road.” It implies that there is some light at the end of the tunnel.”
This support partnership will be available to all MetaMask users worldwide who have been scammed, including those in MetaMask’s most active markets such as the United States, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, India, Vietnam, Brazil, France, Germany, and Nigeria.
Victims lose an average of $25,000, according to Action Fraud. Losses can range from $50 to more than $1 million. Traditional recovery involves directing a lawyer, providing information advisories on exchanges to attempt to identify scammers or wallets they own when tracing funds, or freezing those accounts. Apparently, there is no certain crypto process, this process takes a long time, and the costs can exceed $75k USD.
Then there’s the more traditional heavy lifting required to start civil litigation, such as serving information notices on exchanges, according to Aidan Larkin, CEO of Asset Reality.
MetaMask users will be able to use Asset Reality services for free. However, users may be required to pay legal fees if they determine that the path of recovery makes financial sense. For victims whose legal fees are prohibitively expensive, MetaMask and Asset Reality will assist them in banding together with other victims to form a group. Hundreds of people could be victims of the biggest scam operations. By delivering identifiable information, a victim of a lower amount has the chance to recover their funds if larger victims and ConsenSys pursue larger scale scam operations.
When a MetaMask user submits a report, Asset Reality conducts an initial investigation involving blockchain analytics to provide the user with an understanding of what has occurred.
Metamask uploaded a twitter thread confirming, If you believe you’ve been a victim of a cryptocurrency scam and would like help and support from Asset Reality, click the support link within MetaMask and start a conversation with their support team – they’ll walk you through the process.
“This is about people being able to make that initial report and pursuing their case with trusted partners,” Larkin explained in an interview. “We’re not promising you’ll get your money back tomorrow. These are civil litigation cases that are very complex, but there will be opportunities where we can identify stolen assets that are sitting on platforms all over the world, and who will collaborate and work together to legally return these assets to the victim.”
