Terms of service

For the Putin Hot Seat mobile app and this website · Last updated 31 August 2026

These are the terms on which we take on a fraud recovery case. They are written to be read. If anything here is unclear, ask before you pay us anything.

1. Who you are dealing with

The service is provided by Putin Hot Seat, South Africa. In these terms "we", "us" and "our" mean Putin Hot Seat, and "you" means the person using the service.

Using the app means you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, do not use it.

2. What the service is

We give you a way to:

• open a case about money taken from you by fraud — bank or EFT fraud, invoice or supplier fraud, investment schemes, cryptocurrency scams, romance and social-engineering fraud, advance-fee scams, property or conveyancing fraud, internal theft, and card or SIM-swap fraud;
• attach evidence that is fingerprinted on arrival, so later alteration is detectable;
• have that case reviewed and worked by a caseworker;
• share a single piece of evidence with a named person — a bank investigator, an attorney — and see who opened it;
• follow your case through to a written outcome, including how much, if anything, was recovered.

3. What it is not

Read this before you rely on us for anything.

• We do not guarantee recovery. Whether money can be recovered depends on where it went, how long ago, and what the receiving bank or the courts will do. Much of that is outside our control and some of it is decided before you ever reach us.
• We are not your lawyer. Nothing we do creates an attorney–client relationship and nothing we say is legal advice. Where a case needs an attorney we will say so.
• We are not a bank, the police, or a prosecuting authority. We cannot freeze an account, compel anyone, or decide guilt.
• We are not an emergency service. Nobody monitors the app around the clock.
• We do not promise admissibility. Whether evidence is accepted in any proceeding is for that forum to decide under its own rules. What we can do is keep a record in a form that makes tampering detectable.
• We do not act in your name unless you ask us to. We do not make demands, sign anything, or settle anything on your behalf without your instruction.

4. Who may use it

You must be 18 or older and able to enter a binding agreement. You must complete identity verification before you can pay a case fee. You may open a case on behalf of someone else only if you have their authority, or you are legally entitled to act for them.

We may decline a case, or stop working one, if we believe it is dishonest, unlawful, or beyond what we can usefully do. If we decline before starting work, we refund the fee in full.

5. Your account

You sign in with your mobile number and a one-time code. Keep access to that number secure — anyone who can receive your codes can reach your case and your evidence. Tell us immediately if your number is lost, ported or compromised.

One account per person. Do not let anyone else use yours.

6. Your case and your evidence

6.1 Accuracy

What you tell us must be true and complete as far as you know it. A case built on something that turns out to be false wastes your money and can expose you to a claim from the person you named. If you realise something you told us is wrong, tell your caseworker.

6.2 What you may upload

Only material you are entitled to hold and to give us. Do not upload anything obtained unlawfully, and do not fabricate or alter evidence. Every file is fingerprinted on arrival; altered material is the one thing this system is built to detect.

6.3 Information about other people

A fraud report is mostly information about someone else. You are responsible for the accuracy of what you tell us about them. We use it to investigate and to build a record for a bank, the police or a prosecutor — not to publish it. Naming someone in a report is not a public accusation and must not be treated as one.

6.4 It stays yours

Your evidence remains yours. You give us permission to store it, process it, and disclose it where you have asked us to pursue recovery or where the law requires. Nothing more.

7. What we charge

7.1 Case fee

A once-off fee of R1 500 per case, the same whatever amount was taken, payable by bank transfer after you submit your case. It covers intake review, assignment to a caseworker, secure storage and custody certification of your evidence, and contact with your caseworker for the life of the case. Adding evidence and messaging cost nothing further. There is no monthly charge.

7.2 Our share of anything recovered

If funds are recovered on your case we charge 40% of the amount actually recovered. It is charged on what comes back, never on what you lost. If nothing is recovered, nothing is owed under this clause. The case fee in 7.1 is separate and is not credited against it.

7.3 Before you pay

Your case and its evidence are saved and sealed as soon as you submit them, before any payment, and they stay saved whether you pay or not. The fee determines when a caseworker takes the case up — not whether your account of what happened is recorded.

7.4 Paying

Pay by EFT into the account shown in the app, using your case reference as the payment reference. Without that reference we cannot match your payment to your case. Payments are checked by a person, normally within one business day.

We will never phone you to ask for your banking details, your PIN, or a one-time password from your bank. If someone claiming to be us does, it is not us.

7.5 Refunds

If we decline your case, or we have not begun work on it, we refund the case fee in full. Once a caseworker has been assigned and work has started, the fee is not refundable — it paid for that work, and the work happens whether or not money is recovered.

Nothing in these terms limits any right you have under the Consumer Protection Act, 2008 or any other law that cannot be excluded by agreement.

8. How a case is handled

• We review what you have filed and assign a caseworker once the fee clears.
• Your caseworker checks the details you have given and may ask for more.
• Where there is something to act on — most often a receiving account — we take it up with the relevant bank or authority.
• The case is closed with a written outcome that records what was recovered, if anything, and what was done.

We work cases as quickly as we reasonably can, but we do not promise a timescale. Much of the pace is set by banks, police and third parties.

9. Sharing evidence

You can create a link that lets one named person view a single piece of evidence. They must verify an email address to open it, and every opening — successful or refused — is recorded and shown to you.

You choose who receives a link, so you are responsible for that choice. You can revoke a link at any time, but we cannot undo what someone has already seen or copied.

10. Things you must not do

• File a case you know to be false, or name someone you know to be innocent.
• Use the service to harass, threaten or intimidate anyone.
• Upload unlawful material, or material you have no right to hold.
• Try to gain access to another person's case, or to our systems.
• Use the service to launder money or to disguise the proceeds of a crime.

We may suspend or close an account that does any of these, without a refund, and we may report it.

11. Availability

We try to keep the service running but we do not guarantee it will always be available. It may be unavailable for maintenance, or because of a failure at a supplier. Notifications depend on your phone, your network and Google's delivery — treat them as a convenience, not a guarantee that you have been told something.

12. Liability

We are responsible for doing the work described in these terms with reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for:

• money not being recovered, where we have done that work;
• decisions made by banks, the police, prosecutors or courts;
• loss caused by information you gave us that was wrong or incomplete;
• your failure to report the fraud to your bank or the police in time.

Except where the law does not allow it to be limited, our total liability to you is limited to the fees you have actually paid us on the case concerned.

Nothing here excludes liability for fraud, for gross negligence, or for anything that cannot lawfully be excluded — including your rights under the Consumer Protection Act, 2008.

13. Ending this agreement

You can stop using the service and ask us to close your account at any time. See the privacy policy for what is deleted and what we are required to keep.

We may end this agreement if you break these terms, or if we can no longer usefully work your case. Where a case is already with a bank or the police, ending the agreement does not withdraw what has been submitted to them.

Clause 7.2 survives the end of this agreement in respect of funds recovered on work already done.

14. Changes

We may change these terms. If a change materially affects you we will tell you in the app before it applies to your case. Continuing to use the service after that means you accept the change.

15. Law and disputes

These terms are governed by South African law, and the courts of South Africa have jurisdiction.

If you have a complaint, raise it with us first — email hotseatchair@gmail.com. Most things are settled faster that way than any other.

16. Contact