The provider of digital wallets MetaMask has sealed a partnership with Asset Reality, an entity specializing in the recovery of stolen crypto-assets, in order to provide assistance to victims of scams.
“Through our partnership with Metamask, we will help victims of these scams recover their digital assets whenever possible.” The promise of the London-based company Asset Reality, which specializes in the management and recovery of stolen cryptocurrencies, is particularly attractive on paper and notably involves one of the largest wallet providers, in this case Metamask. With these 30 million active users around the world, the Ethereum wallet wants to sanctuary and protect the funds of its users. Wherever they are.
“This support will be available to all MetaMask users worldwide who have been scammed, including in their most active markets, the US, UK, Philippines, India, Vietnam, in Brazil, France, Germany or Nigeria”, details the press release mentioning this partnership. To do this, the product launched in 2016 by ConsenSys will therefore benefit from the logistical support of Asset Reality.
“Asset Reality will take on most of the work to investigate the scam operations, greatly increasing the likelihood of recovering the funds and bringing the scammers to justice. Victims will still have to report their losses via the official MetaMask platform,” explains the British company. A “win-win” alliance as MetaMask unfortunately receives numerous reports each month from its users reporting attempted scams ranging from “basic” phishing to other more skilfully orchestrated embezzlements.
From a “practical” perspective, after a MetaMask user writes a report, Asset Reality takes over and performs a preliminary investigation involving analytics on the blockchain, allowing the user to understand how events unfolded. . The recovery company also acts as an “expert witness” if the user wishes to be connected with an attorney or join in a larger class action.
As a reminder, according to data from Action Fraud, victims of fraud, in connection with the universe of crypto-assets, lose an average of $25,000 and can, sometimes, in certain cases, see their losses exceed one million dollars. But whether it’s for a loss of $50 or more, Asset Reality and MetaMask are urging victims to speak up and, above all, to stand together, as mentioned above.
“It’s really important that victims of hacking come forward, no matter how small. They could reveal or be the starting point of a larger investigation and create the possibility of grouping claims together to initiate a potential legal action, ”supports Dan Finlay, co-founder of Metamask.
But words matter, and the notion “as much as possible,” mentioned in the introductory remarks of this article, takes on its full meaning in light of the words of Aidan Larki, CEO of Asset Reality. “We’re not saying you’re going to get your funds back tomorrow. These are civil and very complex disputes, but there will be opportunities where we can identify stolen assets that are on platforms around the world, who will collaborate and work together to legally return those assets to the victim.” End of quote.
