Cyber Investigation Services
Updated 5 October 2026 by Investigation Bureau
When the wrong was done to you online, the evidence is online as well. We find it, preserve it and turn it into something you can act on.
The cases are romance fraud, investment and crypto scams, hacked accounts, online harassment, catfishing, blackmail and data theft. Investigation Bureau brings traditional investigative discipline to them, together with digital work we do in-house: OSINT research, and the preservation and analysis of digital evidence, on tooling we built ourselves. The aim is to establish who is behind a screen name, what really happened and what your realistic options are.
If you are reading this shaken or embarrassed, that is an ordinary reaction to having a crime committed against you. The first conversation is free and confidential: tell us about it in confidence. An investigator replies within one working day.
Cases we investigate
Romance and dating scams. You met someone online. Money has begun to move, and something feels wrong. We verify identities, trace photographs and profiles back to where they really came from, and document the fraud. Sometimes that confirms the worst. Sometimes it clears an innocent person. For an illustration, read inside a romance scam investigation.
Online and investment fraud. Fake trading platforms, cloned company websites, invoice fraud and payment-diversion attacks. We map the infrastructure behind the scam and build evidence packages suitable for banks, Report Fraud (the national reporting service that replaced Action Fraud) reports and attempts at civil recovery.
Cryptocurrency tracing. Blockchain analysis follows stolen or scammed funds towards exchanges, where identifying a real person may become possible. We are plain about the limits. Tracing can often be done. Recovery is never guaranteed. Anyone who promises guaranteed crypto recovery is running a second scam. You will hear from us what is realistic and what is not before you spend a pound.
Harassment, stalking and blackmail. Identifying the people behind anonymous accounts, sextortion attempts and defamation campaigns, and building the evidence to the standard a police report or an injunction needs.
Hacked accounts and devices. Working out how the compromise happened and what was taken, then securing what is left. We do this for individuals, families and small businesses.
How we work
- A free, confidential first conversation. You tell us what happened. We tell you whether an investigation can help and what it would cost. Some situations are better taken to your bank's fraud team or the police first, and when that is so we say it.
- Preservation first. Digital evidence disappears. Before anything else, we capture and preserve messages, profiles, transactions and metadata to an evidential standard.
- Investigation. OSINT and technical analysis. Where the case crosses into the physical world, as it often does, we bring in our surveillance and fraud investigation services.
- Reporting. A clear, court-ready report: what we found, how we found it, what it proves and what we recommend you do next.
Why Investigation Bureau for cyber
We are investigators first and technicians second. A screenshot is not evidence until it has been preserved properly. A username is not an answer until it has been tied to a person. Our cyber work is run by the same investigators who run our field operations, on tools we built and run ourselves.
How to choose a cyber investigator in the UK
Cyber work attracts more confident nonsense than any other part of the industry, from "recovery experts" to people who will quietly offer to hack an account. Five checks protect you:
- Preservation first. Ask how evidence is captured. A screenshot with no URL, timestamp or hash is a picture, not evidence. A proper investigator preserves the material before doing anything else.
- Lawful attribution only. An offer to get into an account, device or email, to plant monitoring software or to obtain someone's IP address by deception is an offer to commit an offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, and it would ruin the evidence. Investigation Bureau works from open sources, lawful technical analysis and, where a platform has to disclose, court orders obtained through your solicitor.
- Honesty about limits. Some anonymous accounts cannot lawfully be attributed. Some money cannot be recovered. An investigator who tells you so early is worth more than one who charges you to find out slowly.
- Investigators, not only technicians. Ask whether the people doing the cyber work also run field investigations. Online cases cross into the physical world all the time, and whoever you instruct should be able to follow.
- Data protection and reporting standard. Look for ICO registration, and for reports written so that a police officer, a bank's fraud team or a court can follow the method. We are registered with the ICO as a data controller (ZC259849).
Frequently asked questions
Can you find out who is behind a fake profile or anonymous account?
Often, yes, and by lawful attribution, not by hacking. People reuse usernames, photographs, phone numbers, payment details and habits of writing from one platform to the next, and those threads join up. An account set up carelessly can sometimes be attributed quickly. One set up by somebody competent and determined may not be attributable at all. If that is your case, we say so early instead of billing you while you find out.
Can you recover money lost to an online or romance scam?
Sometimes. Honesty is worth more to you here than optimism. Recovery depends on how fast you act, how you paid and where the money went. Bank transfers passed quickly through mule accounts are the hardest to get back. What an investigation reliably produces is evidence: who the person really is, how the fraud worked, and a documented package for your bank, Report Fraud, the police or a civil claim. Be wary of anyone who guarantees recovery in return for an upfront fee. That is frequently a second scam aimed at the same victim.
Will you hack an account, phone or email for me?
No. Getting into a device or account without the owner's authority is a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. Evidence obtained that way is likely to be rejected, and it exposes you as the client. Anyone who offers it is offering to commit a crime and to make you a party to it. Everything we do is lawful, documented and usable in court.
I am being harassed or blackmailed online. What should I do first?
Preserve, and do not engage. Screenshot everything, including URLs, profile names, dates and any demands for payment. Do not delete the conversation. Do not pay. Do not threaten back. Then report it to the police and tell us what is happening. Online harassment, malicious communications and sextortion are criminal matters, and we work alongside a police report, never in place of one.
Is the evidence you produce usable in court?
Yes, when it is captured properly. That is much of the reason to instruct an investigator and not gather it yourself. We preserve material with timestamps, hashes and a chain-of-custody record, and we report in a form that family courts, civil proceedings and police investigations accept.
Worried about something happening online. Get a clear view of where you stand. The first conversation is free and confidential: send a confidential enquiry and an investigator replies within one working day.
Related reading: Who is behind an anonymous account? · OSINT investigations · Romance scams: what to do and what can be traced · Invoice fraud: the first 48 hours · Inside a romance scam investigation · How to hire a private investigator