MetaMask Taps New Partner to Help Filipino Scam Victims
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Consensys’ leading self-custody wallet MetaMask announced today their new strategic partnership with Asset Reality, an end-to-end solution for recovering, managing, and accessing seized crypto and complex assets. The collaboration represents an “industry-first approach” in improving digital asset recovery.
“When a user has funds stolen, often due to being scammed into handing over their passwords or Secret Recovery Phrase, they often have nowhere to turn to, in what is an incredibly difficult time for them emotionally and financially. We see losses across the entire crypto eco-system ranging from hundreds to millions of dollars in value. We’re proud to be partnering with ConsenSys and MetaMask to deliver this important service which will ultimately improve users’ experience in dealing with these situations.” -Aidan Larkin, CEO of Asset Reality
Through the partnership, the 30 million Metamask users will now receive support from Asset Reality, especially users who have been victims of scams. The service will be available globally, including across MetaMask’s most active markets in the United States, the UK, the Philippines, India, Vietnam, Brazil, France, Germany, and Nigeria.
“Over the last few years, economic activity on web3 has grown exponentially. While this growth has attracted a number of highly innovative applications that will help redefine the future of financial services and the creator economy, it has also drawn the attention of online scammers and thieves. Through this partnership, MetaMask and Asset Reality will be helping victims of scams recover their digital assets where possible,” MetaMask wrote in a media release.
MetaMask noted that according to Action Fraud, scam victims lose on average $25k; with the range of losses that can be as low as $50 and occasionally exceed $1 million. The process of making the hackers accountable and recovering stolen funds takes extensive time. The traditional recovery method uses civil litigation, and usually involves instructing a lawyer, serving information notices on exchanges to try and identify scammers or wallets they own when tracing funds, or freezing those accounts. MetaMask pointed out that “process takes a long time, especially as there is no special crypto process, and the costs can be in excess of $75,000.”
However, with Asset Reality’s offering, which allows multiple victims of a scam operation to join forces and build a larger forensic investigation against a scam operation, victims will now have a higher probabilty of winning their case.
“Asset Reality will be the case handler for MetaMask’s affected users. They will take the heavy lifting off the users to build an investigation into each scam operation, greatly increasing the likelihood of fund recovery and bringing scammers to justice,” MetaMask stated.
The services of Asset Reality will be free to MetaMask users but they may still need to cover legal costs should they decide that the route of recovery makes economic sense.
Moreover, a person who has been a victim of a lower amount has the opportunity to recover their funds if larger victims and ConsenSys pursue these larger scale scam operations by providing identifiable information.
“Helping users investigate and recover lost funds is a strategic tool in a multi-faceted strategy that we are continuously executing that includes improving security, user education, and new ways to back up assets. Through this industry-leading partnership with Asset Reality, ConsenSys and MetaMask want to allow victims to join together, build cases against these scam operations and bring them to justice. It’s really important that victims of hacks come forward, no matter how small. They could reveal or be the starting point of a wider investigation and create the opportunity to aggregate claims to commence potential legal action,” —Dan Finlay, Co-Founder of MetaMask
How can users benefit this service?
Victims of scams will be able to benefit from the following 5 simple steps:
1. A user experiences account compromise and/or funds loss typically through a phishing scam.
2. MetaMask support will intake the users and ascertainhow they were compromised, if possible, and request any relevant information regarding phishing websites, vectors, and funds lost.
3. MetaMask support will provide safety tips on next steps for users and pass them to Asset Reality.
4. The MetaMask agent will direct the user to open a case with Asset Reality through a page on metamask.io.
5. Asset Reality will take over communication with the users, and will proactively keep users updated on the status of their cases.
This article is published on BitPinas: MetaMask Announces New Partnership to Help Filipino Scam Victims
Disclaimer: BitPinas articles and its external content are not financial advice. The team serves to deliver independent, unbiased news to provide information for Philippine-crypto and beyond.
