The shapes these losses take
Many NFT scam losses come from approvals rather than purchases: a fake site asks you to sign something that quietly lets another address move your tokens. Others involve projects that collect mint money and disappear, impersonated support staff in a Discord server, or offers to buy an NFT that lead to a phishing page. Some losses come from a seed phrase typed into a fake wallet app. Each pattern leaves a different trail on the blockchain, and the trail matters more than the story the scammer told. Knowing which pattern you fell into also tells you what to do with whatever is left in the wallet.
Securing what remains and keeping the trail
If your seed phrase may have been exposed, assets still in that wallet are not safe, and moving them to a fresh wallet with a new phrase is the usual step. If only an approval was abused, revoking it through a reputable tool is often part of the response. The transaction history stays public on chain, so securing the wallet does not destroy the evidence. Save the wallet addresses, transaction hashes, website addresses, screenshots of the mint page, and the chat messages that led you there. Report the loss to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center and to any marketplace or exchange involved.
What recovery realistically involves
Funds sometimes pass through a centralized exchange, and an exchange can freeze an account in response to legal process or a law enforcement request. That is often the real opening in these cases, and it depends on speed and on tracing work. Where the people behind a project are identifiable, a civil claim may be possible, though collecting is a separate question. Recovery scams follow these losses closely, so treat any stranger offering to retrieve the NFTs for an upfront fee as part of the same problem. In a first call we review the transactions and where the assets went, and we tell you plainly whether a recovery effort looks worth its cost.
