MetaMask To Partner With Investigative Firm, Asset Reality, To Help Combat Fraud
If you've ever had your credit card stolen, and been charged for transactions you never approved of then chances are Visa or the like will reverse them and give you back your funds. But the same assurance can not be given to the crypto community.
"If you lose your crypto, it’s a very humbling and lonely experience. And the amount of people who get scammed twice is huge," says Aidan Larkin, CEO of investigation firm Asset Reality, who adds that maliciously, the victims are usually further hacked when attempting to get their original tokens back.
This is why Asset Reality and popular crypto wallet service, MetaMask, are teaming up for a new service that hopes to make the process for those seeking to regain their crypto a lot easier.
MetaMask announced today an innovative solution to put hacking victims in touch with Asset Reality. The corporation will then work with the victims of these hacks to get in contact with potential lawyers, law enforcement, or even forensic services.
"Victims of scams often have difficulty getting sufficient resources and attention from law enforcement. Asset Reality’s offering allows multiple victims of a scam operation to join forces and build a larger forensic investigation against a scam operation," said MetaMask in a statement. "They will take the heavy lifting off the users to build an investigation into each scam operation."
The collaboration came by way of MetaMask head of operations, Jacob Cantele, becoming increasingly dissatisfied with how the way hacks and malicious activities were being held within the community. Especially when it pertained to wallet recovery services which he found to be mostly "vaporware" or outright scams, according to Alex Herman, a security expert at MetaMask who spoke with Decrypt.
"We wanted to provide a guiding light. MetaMask is paying for this as a service extended to our users. We’ll cover a first level investigation," said Herman, who went on to tout how the company was already increasing its customer support staff to help victims with the process.
The process will begin on a new page on the Meta Mask website, that will invite victims of fraud to report the nature in which the hack took place with as many details as possible. In response, Asset Reality will contact the individual and in some instances provide help with recovering funds.
While Asset Reality and Metas mask are forming a noble coalition, it will be interesting to see the amount of success the duo has, due to most hacks coming from countries out of the jurisdiction of American law, making it more difficult to regain those funds. But this should not be taken as a negative due to the rest of the industry turning a blind eye to this regular occurrence, it's good to see a major player taking some type of step to combat actions such as these.