How to report a crypto scam in Ireland

If you have lost crypto to a scam in Ireland, do two things today: report it to your local Garda station, and put the wallet addresses on the public record.

The Garda report opens the criminal investigation. The public record works the same afternoon.

Start with the part that catches everyone out. There is no online route for reporting fraud in Ireland. An Garda Síochána takes two things online — a declaration for theft of property worth €1,000 or less, and hate crime. Fraud is neither. For a crypto scam you go to a station, or you ring one.

Key takeaways

• Report to your local Garda station — in person, or by telephone. Fraud reports are made to the local station in the first instance, and there is no online form for it.
• The Garda Online Crime Declaration is capped at €1,000 and covers theft of property, not fraud. Do not try to use it for this.
• You do not file directly with the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau. Your local report may be forwarded to the GNECB Assessment Unit, which decides whether the complaint is civil, criminal, or both.
• 999 or 112 if it is happening now. The Garda Confidential Line is 1800 666 111.
• The Central Bank of Ireland takes reports about the firm, but does not investigate your loss and does not recover funds. Check its Registers before you pay, not after — including the Register of Crypto-Asset Service Providers.

What to do in the first hours

Stop sending money. Nearly every victim makes one last payment — a withdrawal fee, a tax, a "release" charge to unlock the account. That money does not come back, and paying it marks you as someone who pays.

Then, in this order:

1. Copy the destination addresses and the transaction hash (TXID) of every payment. They are in your wallet history or your exchange's transaction log — the only part the Gardaí cannot reconstruct without you.
2. Screenshot everything before it disappears. Full WhatsApp and Telegram threads, the profile that contacted you, the platform, the dashboard showing your supposed gains. These sites go dark within days.
3. Ring your bank the same day if any leg went out by bank transfer, including the one that bought the crypto. Use the number on your card, never one you were given.
4. Tell the exchange you sent from. Give them the receiving address so they can flag it. A freeze, if one happens, happens at whichever exchange the funds land in.
5. Report to the Garda station with everything printed.

Where to report

Your local Garda station

This is the route. All members of An Garda Síochána can investigate fraud and many have specialist training in it, which is why reports are made locally in the first instance. Station addresses and numbers are in the Garda Station Directory on garda.ie.

Bring copies of everything, on paper. The Gardaí ask specifically for all emails, account details, copies of any online advertisement or posting, and anything else relevant. Add the wallet addresses and transaction hashes — the part a Garda cannot get any other way. "I was scammed online" gives an investigation nothing to work with.

If you cannot get to a station, ring it. The Gardaí offer both routes, "in person or by telephone", and any station will do, not only your own. Do not let the trip be the reason the report waits a week.

For anything in progress, ring 999 or 112. To pass information confidentially, the Garda Confidential Line is 1800 666 111.

The Garda National Economic Crime Bureau — through your station, not directly

The GNECB is the specialist bureau for economic crime: serious and complex commercial fraud, payment card fraud, money laundering, computer crime, and breaches of the Companies Acts and the Competition Act. Of its seven sections, the one that will touch your file is the Assessment Unit.

It is not somewhere you send your case. People search for the "Garda fraud squad" and try to ring it directly, which is time spent going nowhere. Cases unsuitable for local attention are forwarded to the GNECB by your station, and the Bureau assists local investigations too. The door is your station.

What happens next, and the civil-or-criminal question

Worth knowing before you hear it from someone else: not every fraud complaint is treated as a crime.

Once you report locally, the file may be forwarded to the Assessment Unit in the Economic Crime Bureau, which determines whether the complaint is civil, criminal, or both. That is the Gardaí's own published description of the process.

For a crypto scam it turns on deception. If a platform took your money on the strength of invented returns, a fake dashboard and a fake identity, that is not a bad investment — it is a false representation, and it belongs on the criminal side. One more reason the addresses, hashes and chat history matter: they put the deception on the face of the file rather than leaving you to assert it.

What documentation to gather

• Every destination wallet address you sent to
• The transaction hash (TXID) for each payment, with date and time
• Uncropped screenshots of the full conversations, not the highlights
• Exact URLs for the platform, the advert and the profile that contacted you
• Bank statements and transfer receipts, including the crypto purchase
• Names, numbers, emails and handles used to contact you
• A written timeline: first contact, every payment, last contact
• Any remote-access software you were asked to install, and when

Check before you pay — the Central Bank's Registers and warning notices

Free tools, all for use before money moves, at registers.centralbank.ie.

The Register of Authorised Firms lists every firm authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland to provide financial services here. Mind the gap: firms authorised elsewhere in the EEA can passport in and may not appear, so if one is missing, ring and ask rather than assume.

The Unauthorised Firms search and the Central Bank's warning notices name firms providing financial services without the required authorisation — a power it holds under the Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement) Act 2013. It also carries warning notices from other ESMA members, which matters: most platforms targeting Irish investors are based abroad.

For crypto there is a register with a name, and it is the one to use: the Register of Authorised Crypto-Asset Service Providers, kept under Article 63 of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. The Central Bank is Ireland's competent authority for MiCAR under S.I. No. 607/2024, and CASPs have needed authorisation since 30 December 2024. A platform seriously courting Irish customers should be on that register. Most in these scams are not, and have no intention of being.

The Central Bank's public helpline is 0818 681 681 or +353 1 224 5800, Monday to Friday, 09.00 to 18.00.

Why the Central Bank is not where your case gets investigated

This distinction saves weeks, so it is worth being blunt about.

The Central Bank does receive reports about unauthorised firms, and making one is genuinely useful — it can lead to a warning notice that stops the next person. Its own advice to victims is to report to your bank, the Central Bank and the Gardaí.

But that is a report about the firm, not your case. It does not investigate your loss and does not get your money back. And because the firm was unauthorised, the protections that would normally sit behind you are absent: no investor compensation scheme, no access to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman, no safeguarding of client funds. The route to an investigation is the Garda report.

Can I get my money back?

Sometimes, and much less often than the adverts above these search results imply.

The Central Bank puts it more plainly than most private guides will: it is highly unlikely you will ever recover your money from the original scam.

What it turns on is whether the funds reached a service with compliance obligations before they scattered. Through mixers, bridges, or networks where nobody answers a request, that route narrows to almost nothing.

Nobody can honestly quote you a percentage. Anyone who does, over the phone, having seen not one transaction, is selling you something.

Beware of "fund recovery" offers

Weeks, months, sometimes years later, someone offers to recover what you lost. They claim to be solicitors, or to have contacts inside an exchange or a State body.

The Central Bank documents the pattern in detail. They ask for a fee first — a supposed tax, a government administration charge, a re-bonding fee. They often pose as a fictitious government agency and send papers about legal action, NDAs or share certificates. Those documents can look entirely official.

Your details were traded. The Central Bank's own term for the lists these people work from is "sucker lists".

The tells do not change:

• They contacted you
• Money is wanted before anything happens
• Success is guaranteed
• Inside contacts are claimed

Reporting is free. No State body in Ireland — not the Gardaí, not the Central Bank — ever asks you to pay in advance to have your funds returned.

Why record the address publicly

A criminal investigation moves at the pace of a criminal investigation. A public record works this afternoon.

Post the address, the hash and the website on Chainabuse and that entry is visible to exchange compliance teams, investigators, and anyone searching the name before they transfer. Chainabuse is free, open to all, and aggregates reports against the same address, so scattered losses become a pattern anyone can see.

Often the person who benefits is not the one who reported. It is the one who searches two weeks later and finds the warning.

FAQ

1. Where do I report a crypto scam in Ireland?

To your local Garda station, in person or by telephone. Fraud reports are made to the local station in the first instance, and there is no online form for fraud in Ireland. Station details are in the Garda Station Directory on garda.ie.

2. Can I report fraud to the Gardaí online?

No. The Garda online services are an Online Crime Declaration for theft of property valued at €1,000 or less, and a separate hate crime form. Neither covers fraud. A crypto scam is reported to a Garda station in person or by telephone.

3. Do I contact the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau directly?

No. You report to your local Garda station, and cases unsuitable for local attention are forwarded to the GNECB from there. The Bureau also assists local investigations, so your station is not a downgrade.

4. Does the Central Bank of Ireland investigate my case or get my money back?

No. It receives reports about unauthorised firms and can publish a warning notice, which is worth doing, but it does not investigate individual losses and does not recover funds. Its Registers are a check to run before you pay.

5. What should I bring to the Garda station?

Copies of all emails and messages, account details, any online advertisement or posting, your bank statements, the exact URLs, and above all the destination wallet addresses and the transaction hash of each payment with dates and times. Printed.

6. What if I am told it is a civil matter?

That assessment is made by the Assessment Unit in the Economic Crime Bureau, which determines whether a complaint is civil, criminal, or both. Deception separates the two, so make sure the file carries evidence of it — the fake dashboard, the invented returns, the identity that was not real — not only your payment records.

7. Is reporting to Chainabuse the same as reporting to the Gardaí?

No, and do both. The Garda report opens the criminal investigation in Ireland. The Chainabuse report makes the address immediately visible to exchanges and investigators in every country.