Scammed on TRON: what to do in the first hours

First hour: stop the losses

• If funds were taken from your wallet (you signed something, entered your seed phrase, the wallet was drained) — move what is left to a new wallet with a new seed phrase. Treat the old one as compromised.
• Revoke approvals if you signed an approve: see how to revoke approvals.
• Check permissions: if you cannot send USDT, see whether the owner was changed, see the multisig trap.
• If you were cheated in a deal — stop the conversation about “top-ups”, “taxes” and “unlocking”. Make no new transfers.

What to keep

Collect everything at once, before anything is deleted:

• the transaction hash (TXID) of every transfer to the scammer;
• your address and the address the money went to;
• the amount and the time;
• the full chat, profiles, website links, usernames, phone numbers;
• screenshots of the “platform” pages if it was a fake site.

Where the money went

Scammers rarely keep money on one address. They move it on, split it, and eventually deposit it on exchanges or exchangers to cash out. That is where it can be frozen.

GuardPay /stolen traces the funds from your transaction: which addresses they passed through, where the balance sits, and which of them reached exchange addresses. You can start for free. For the exchanges found, letters are prepared, and for the police a summary with addresses and transactions.

Who to contact

• The exchanges where the money arrived. Write to them about a deposit of stolen funds: TXID, address, amount, a request to freeze it and preserve the account holder’s data. The account holder is not always the scammer: it may be a P2P buyer or another victim. So the exchange and the police decide, not public accusations.
• The police where you live. Almost every exchange needs a police report to disclose the account holder’s data.
• The USDT issuer: the issuer freezes addresses, usually at the request of law enforcement. Your report helps, but the decision is not made on it alone.

What not to do

• Pay “hackers”, “lawyers” and “recovery services” who find you on their own. More in fake recovery services.
• Publish accusations with addresses and the exchange name: the scammer will move the rest, and the account holder may not be the person you are looking for.
• Enter your seed phrase anywhere “for verification” or “for a refund”.
• Send “test” amounts to the scammer’s address to “unlock” a withdrawal.