What happens to your deposit.
You have already been taken advantage of once. You are entitled to know exactly where every pound goes before you part with it. This page is the whole answer, with nothing buried in a footnote.
The short answer
We charge nothing upfront. The only payment that can ever be asked of you is a refundable compliance deposit, paid into a wallet held in your own name, and it exists for one reason: to prove that the wallet a recovery is released to is genuinely yours.
It is returned to you as part of the final disbursement. If your case closes without a recovery, it is returned in full.
- Paid into a wallet held under your own name, which you control
- Used to prove the receiving address belongs to you before funds are released
- Used to satisfy the anti money laundering checks institutions require
- Refundable — returned on disbursement, or in full if nothing is recovered
- Always visible in your wallet as a recorded transaction
- It is not a fee for our work — we take nothing upfront
- It is not paid to a personal account, an individual, or a staff member
- It is not requested over WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS or by a cold caller
- It is not required to open a case, to be traced, or to receive your report
- It is not a tax, an insurance payment, or an unlocking charge
Where it sits, and when it comes back.
- 1 · A recovery becomes releasable
Nothing is asked of you before this point. A deposit is only ever discussed once there is a balance to release.
- 2 · A wallet is opened in your name
The wallet is created for you and shown in your cftrace dashboard. It is yours, not ours.
- 3 · The deposit is made into that wallet
This proves address control and lets the releasing institution complete its anti money laundering checks.
- 4 · Verification completes
Your documents and the address are confirmed. Your dashboard status moves to activated.
- 5 · Disbursement
The recovered balance plus your deposit is released to you. Our success fee is taken from the recovery, not from the deposit.
If we recover nothing, the deposit comes back in full. That is a term of our written agreement, not a goodwill gesture.
How to tell an impersonator from us.
- Someone asks you to pay before any recovery exists.
- Someone asks for a payment to a personal account, a gift card, or an individual's wallet.
- Someone contacts you first, out of the blue, claiming to have found your funds.
- Someone pressures you to act within minutes, or asks you to keep it confidential from your bank.
- The email address is not @cftrace.com or @cf-trace.com.
If you are unsure whether a message came from us, stop and check. Verify who we are or contact us through this website only.
Ask us anything about the money before you commit.
The first consultation is free and there is nothing to pay to find out whether your funds are traceable.