Recovery Guide
How to Recover From a Crypto Scam in Canada, IMM 1017B Guide
Reviewed by: William Galipeau · Last updated: 2026-08-24
The IMM 1017B is a statutory declaration form used in Canada for various legal processes. Scammers sometimes tell victims they need to complete an IMM 1017B to release frozen funds, typically alongside a fee. This is a fraud tactic.
Is the IMM 1017B related to investment fraud recovery?
The IMM 1017B is an Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) form. It has no legitimate connection to investment fraud recovery, crypto asset recovery, or securities regulation. If anyone asks you to complete an IMM 1017B to recover investment funds, this is a fraud designed to collect a fee.
Legitimate steps to recover from a crypto scam in Canada
- Contact your bank immediately, call the fraud line. Wire recalls and chargeback processes are time-sensitive.
- File with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, antifraudcentre.ca or 1-888-495-8501.
- Report to your provincial securities regulator, find yours at aretheyregistered.ca.
- File with CIRO, if the firm claimed CIRO registration, file at ciro.ca.
- Report to RecoverFunds.ca, we review your case and help you sequence the right steps.
- Preserve blockchain records, save all wallet addresses and transaction IDs.
Warning about recovery scams
After a crypto fraud, you may be contacted by firms claiming special capability to recover your funds. They will ask for an upfront fee. Almost universally, these are secondary scams. Never pay anyone upfront to recover lost crypto funds.
Other fake forms and fees used in the same scam
The IMM 1017B is one of many official-looking documents used to extract one more payment after the money has gone. The pattern is always the same: a form or a fee stands between you and a balance you can see on a screen.
Names that turn up repeatedly include anti-money-laundering clearance certificates, tax clearance forms, capital gains prepayments, liquidity or activation fees, insurance against transfer failure, blockchain verification charges, and "compliance" or "regulatory" deposits. Some borrow the branding of real bodies — the CRA, FINTRAC, IRCC, a securities commission, a bank.
None of them exist as a step in withdrawing money you are owed. A genuine financial institution deducts what it is owed from the balance; it does not ask you to send more money in first. That single rule catches nearly every version of this.
How to recover crypto from a scam, the real process
There is no form that releases funds. What there is, is a sequence in which the earliest steps matter most.
- Stop paying. Every fee after a blocked withdrawal is part of the fraud, and regulators routinely see those fees exceed the original deposit.
- Contact your bank, card issuer or exchange the same day. Card payments can often be charged back. Wires can sometimes be recalled while funds remain in the receiving account. Crypto can occasionally be frozen if it has not moved on and the address is flagged quickly.
- Preserve the evidence before an account is closed or a website disappears — dashboard screenshots, transaction IDs, wallet addresses, exported chat logs, and the names and numbers used by whoever contacted you.
- Report it to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre on 1-888-495-8501, to the securities regulator for the province you live in, and to your local police for a file number.
The full process, with contact details for every province, is here.
What genuine government contact looks like
Canadian government bodies do not phone or message people to demand immediate payment, they do not accept payment in cryptocurrency, gift cards or e-transfers to a personal account, and they do not threaten arrest or deportation to force a decision in the next hour.
If someone claiming to be from IRCC, the CRA or a securities regulator contacts you about releasing money, end the conversation and call that organisation back on a number you found yourself, not one they gave you.
If you paid a fee to release funds
Document that payment separately from your original loss. It is a distinct fraud event, it may be more recently made and therefore more recoverable, and it belongs in your report as its own item. People are often reluctant to mention it because it feels like a second mistake — but it is evidence, and it is common.