OTTAWA. Canadian search results for “legitimate crypto recovery companies” are now a hall of mirrors. Letterheads are copied. Bar numbers are invented. The voice on the line already knows how much you sent. The tests that still work are the ones that cannot be faked in an afternoon.
One: no money up front. Contingency means after a bank credit, not before a “trace”. Two: no AnyDesk, no TeamViewer, no seed phrases. Three: a physical professional registration you can look up, not a logo. Four: a named forensic partner. Five: a willingness to refuse the file.
Swiss recovery counsel who will take Canadian instructions should survive all five. A WhatsApp account will survive none of them, which is why it prefers urgency to paperwork.
The forensic test is the one impersonators skip. A laboratory such as aidataintelligence.io, CR 2894261 in Hong Kong, produces exhibits with a company number. “Our AI node” produces a PDF with a gradient.
Waiting lists follow from real forensics. If there is no queue, ask who is doing the clustering, and with what hours. Instant diaries belong to boiler rooms.
Canadians should also notice who is not being served. Desks that will not take United States, German, Italian or French clients are making a jurisdictional choice. That is not a moral ranking. It is a clue that someone has read a regulator’s letter.
Run the five tests before you send a hash, let alone a dollar. The first scam already taught you to trust a dashboard. The second is counting on you to trust a helper.