MetaMask will pay Asset Reality, a crypto detective company, to assist users who have fallen victim to a hacking attack against their wallets. Visa or your bank can reverse charges if someone steals your credit or uses your debit card to shop. For fraud victims in crypto, however, it’s a very different experience.
“Losing your crypto can be very demoralizing and lonely. Aidan Larkin (CEO of Asset Reality), a leading investigation firm, says that many victims are preyed upon again when they try to get their crypto back.
Larkin’s company has partnered with the leading crypto wallet MetaMask to create a new service that can make seeking help easier. It could increase the chance of victims receiving their crypto back.
MetaMask announced Thursday that it would connect hacking victims with Asset Reality. This investigative firm could help victims to band together, and in some cases, connect them with lawyers, forensic service, and law enforcement.
Victims of scams are often unable to get enough attention and resources from law enforcement. MetaMask stated that Asset Reality’s offer allows multiple victims to a scam operation, to come together and create a larger forensic investigation. They will do all the heavy lifting for each victim of a scam operation and build an investigation.
Alex Herman, a MetaMask security expert, said Decrypt the partnership was formed after Jacob Cantele, the wallet’s head, became frustrated with existing crypto recovery services that he considered to be “vaporware” or scams.
“We wanted to be a guiding light. MetaMask will pay for this service as an extension to its users. “We’ll cover the first level investigation,” stated Herman. He also said that the company has increased its customer service staff to assist fraud victims.
This will be done by creating a section on MetaMask that allows users to report hacker funds and provide details about the hack. Asset Reality will then contact the victims and help them take action to recover their funds.
Larkin claims that this will create an easier experience for hackers and provide valuable data that can be used to assist crypto owners in preparing a response to hacks. Asset Reality will also use the data to track stolen assets and warn markets that NFTs are being used to fence stolen items.
It remains to be seen if the MetaMask tool is effective. Many crypto thieves, many of them from rogue countries like Russia and North Korea, are skilled at stealing assets and transferring them to wallets that are beyond reach of law enforcement. It is possible to make it difficult for them to gather a number of requests for assistance into a formal investigation.
Larkin admits that it is not an easy mission, but he believes it should be a significant improvement on users’ current attempts at responding to crypto hacks. This typically involves them turning to Twitter for help, where they are more likely to encounter scammers than help or sympathy.
He believes that the MetaMask effort could represent the first step in a safer, more user-friendly version of Web3 – one where the response to financial hacks is closer to Visa than the Wild West.
