The FBI has seized MyChargeback.com, a company that claims to have worked with 800 banks and 450 law enforcement agencies and successfully recovered millions of dollars in disputed claims for its clients.
But so far there are little answers of why the FBI seized the company.
Signs Point To CryptoCurrency Return Fraud Scheme
People close to the matter say 60 people with the company lost their jobs subsequent to the shutdown. However, little information is available from the FBI or the company on the sudden closure however, the FBI is characterizing it as a “cryptocurrency return fraud scheme.”
MyChargeback.com is a registered trademark of the parent company, CactilLLC.
A Recovery Company That Charged Victims Money To Recover Their Stolen Crypto
The company, which was started out of Tel Aviv in 2016, provided services directly to consumers, including chargeback assistance, bank wire recalls, and intelligence reports on merchants and cryptocurrency transactions.
However, their primary focus over the last few years has been helping consumers recover cryptocurrency lost in scams. They claim to have done this by tracing a client’s cryptocurrency’s path through the blockchain to discover the cash-out wallet and the exchange that hosts it so they could recover funds.
The company even claimed to work with the FBI and Law Enforcement in a recent press release.
The FBI Released Alert Two Days Ago Warning of Cryptocurrency Recovery Scams
The seizure of MyChargeback.com occurred just days after the FBI issued an alert warning consumers about cryptocurrency recovery scams.
On Monday, they issued an alert about “an emerging criminal tactic used to further defraud cryptocurrency scam victims.”
According to the FBI, fraudsters are impersonating lawyers from fake law firms, reaching out to cryptocurrency scam victims through social media and messaging platforms. They offer services to investigate and recover lost funds, aiming to deceive victims into providing more money or personal information.
The Company Partnered With Law Enforcement And SCARS
What makes the seizure troubling is the seemingly legitimate partnerships that MyChargeback had with law enforcement and victims’ rights groups.
For example, in 2019, they announced a partnership with the well-respected SCARS organization to recover funds sent fraudulently through Western Union.
The company also had an active Youtube account where they regularly posted videos on how not to become victims of scams and even questioned if Twitter was doing enough to stop scams.
Prior Complaints About MyChargeback Reveal A Pattern
MyChargeback seems to have had issues with consumer complaints before the shutdown. The complaints primarily involved customers paying retainer fees to recover their cryptocurrency, but they had achieved no results.
Although the company touted its success in achieving recoveries, some customers found little evidence of testimonials to back up that claim. In one review, the customer complains that he “could not recall any reporting of successful outcomes in terms of recovering funds”
For their part, MyChargeback claimed that Trustpilot had it out for them. In response to one customer they argued with her saying, “This is yet another example of Trustpilot’s utter incompetence in filtering out blatant attempts by unprincipled individuals to mislead consumers. Trustpilot’s processes are broken, which is why they deleted 30 of our 5-star reviews last year alone while letting spurious fake reviews like this one to remain online.”
ScamWatcher.Org and MyChargeback InCahoots?
A website called ScamWatcher.Org appears to be affiliated with MyChargebacks, and a YouTube video explains that the two sites are running a scam together.
Victims of crypto scams were enticed to go to ScamWatcher.Org to report the scam. While on the site, they were encouraged to go to MyChargeback.com to regain their stolen crypto.
Online reviews of ScamWatcher.org confirm it is also a company with many complaints, following a similar pattern to MyChargeback.
Reddit – ScamWatcher.Org and MyChargeback Cooked Up A Devious Scheme
A Reddit user posted this nine months ago.
“I want to shed some light on a concerning situation involving two websites, ScamWatcher.org and MyChargeBack.com, which seem to be operating in a coordinated manner to potentially deceive and scam victims. The evidence is compelling, and I want to share it to keep our community informed and vigilant.”
Questions Loom And Few Answers About Their Fate
Even though the FBI seized the website and shuttered the offices, there has been no official press release nor a statement from the company about what might have transpired.
Until then, we are left guessing what might have happened to this chargeback company that touted a broad base of banking customers (over 800) and a wide law enforcement network.
The company’s CEO, Aaron Lazor, was listed as the founder of another credit card dispute company called Finscend. Finscend is an AI-powered bank dispute platform that promised to cut the cost of chargeback dramatically. That company’s website is also not functional at this time.
What happened here is a mystery, but all signs could point to a massive scam that the FBI took action on.