CFTC Warns of Recovery Scam Exploiting Fraud Victims Through Agency Impersonation

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has issued a public warning regarding a growing imposter scam in which fraudsters falsely claim to represent the agency.

According to the CFTC, scammers are posing as the CFTC Office of Inspector General to contact financial fraud victims, promising to help recover lost funds from foreign bank accounts. In reality, these imposters use the scheme to further exploit victims, who have already suffered financial losses from previous scams.

The impersonators typically claim they can retrieve money lost to investment scams, pressuring victims to provide sensitive financial information. The CFTC has emphasized that its Office of Inspector General never reaches out to individuals with offers of financial recovery.

“If someone contacts you claiming to be from the CFTC, write down as much information as possible, but do not share or confirm any personal details, including account numbers, Social Security numbers, or digital wallet private keys. End the call immediately,” the regulator warns.

The CFTC further cautioned that scam emails often use fraudulent addresses or domains, and “all legitimate CFTC emails will come from @cftc.gov—no exceptions”. Any communication from personal or web-based services such as Yahoo! or Gmail should be treated as suspicious, as government employees will never do so.