How it works
From a first message to a disrupted network
The model
Six stages, one journey
The stages follow published research and official warnings, and translate them into things a person or a bank can observe. The model does not try to decide whether someone is in love. It watches what is said, asked and paid.
- 1
The approach
Someone finds you.
- 2
Fast closeness
Trust is built quickly, and moved somewhere private.
- 3
Money enters the conversation
Wealth, an emergency, or an opportunity appears.
- 4
A small ask
A low-value request tests whether you will pay.
- 5
Bigger, and secret
Amounts grow, and you are told to hide it.
- 6
The trap closes
Fees block your money; threats or silence follow.
| Stage | What shows up in a bank’s data |
|---|---|
| 1. The approach | Nothing yet. This stage happens off the bank's screen. |
| 2. Fast closeness | Sometimes spending on dating subscriptions. The FCA lists this as one signal that matters only alongside others. |
| 3. Money enters the conversation | Still little. Some banks see new searches or contact with crypto services. |
| 4. A small ask | A new beneficiary with a low-value first payment. A first-time purchase of cryptocurrency. Payments that fit the customer's usual spending, so that alone proves nothing. |
| 5. Bigger, and secret | Several payments to the same new beneficiary in one day, even if each is low. A loan received and then quickly sent on to a money-transfer service. Payments to a beneficiary with earlier fraud concerns. |
| 6. The trap closes | Further payments after a long run of earlier ones, then silence. Counter-party accounts linked to many other customers' reports. |
Three kinds of evidence
No single signal decides anything
Behaviour
Payments compared with the customer's own baseline: a first crypto purchase, several payments to one new payee in a day, a loan sent straight on, a sudden jump in size.
Seen by the bank.
Narrative
What the customer chooses to tell the bank's or platform's fraud team: a move to a private app, no live video, an investment tip, a request for secrecy. Never the messages or images themselves.
Supplied voluntarily.
Network
Whether a beneficiary, wallet, domain or profile has appeared in other cases, shared as an indicator under a lawful-basis agreement, never as a personal story.
Seen across institutions.
The three are reported separately as activity (how unusual), harm at risk (how much could be lost), and confidence (how many independent kinds of evidence agree). Merging them into one number would hide which one is doing the work.
Proportionate response
The response matches the evidence
No action, and a record
Signals were reviewed and found proportionate. Doing nothing is also a logged, auditable decision.
Warn and pause
A short, non-accusatory prompt at the next payment to a new payee, with a link to the public check.
Ask and review
A trained specialist calls, asks open questions, and never suggests the customer made a poor choice.
Hold and disrupt
Where the law and the bank's terms allow: a time-limited hold, enhanced contact, and referral of the linked beneficiary or wallet.
Safeguard first
If someone is being blackmailed: a trained person takes over, no blame, no pressure to pay, and fast routes to reporting and takedown.
Accountability
Every decision leaves a trace a person can check
The human decides
The system recommends and explains. A trained person accepts, lowers or raises the response, and records why. The system never blocks, reports or accuses by itself.
A tamper-evident trace
Each entry carries a SHA-256 hash of the one before it, so changing, removing or reordering anything breaks the chain. Try it in the console, including a simulated tampering.
One protective system
Relacryx is one part of TRACE
Each TRACE system does one job and hands people, not records, to the next. Together they cover a crime before it happens, while it is happening, and after.
Before
TRACE Shield
Everyday protection for the public: checks on messages, links and calls before you act.
Relacryx hands over: a first message that looks like the approach stage.
During and after
TRACE Vireth
A calm pause at the moment of pressure, plus recovery steps, deadlines and letters if money has gone.
Relacryx hands over: a payment request, or money already sent.
Across the whole journey
TRACE Relacryx
Understands the relationship, traces the money, and connects cases into networks.
This site: the stage model, the public check, and the analyst console.
Detection and investigation
TRACE Nexus
An evidence workspace for analysts, with rules, retrieval, and mandatory human sign-off.
Relacryx hands over: linked cases and beneficiaries for investigation.
Organisations
TRACE Risk Advisory
Helps banks, platforms and small businesses show they have taken reasonable steps against scams.
Relacryx supports: the evidence base for what 'reasonable steps' look like.