Bitcoin Forum

Hello,

I met someone on internet who suggested that I invest in a crypto trading platform that I didn't know about. I did it step by step and made sure that it was possible to transfer the funds back to binance at any time. So I increased the volume and today customer service is asking me to pay 10% of my capital as a fee. What's more, they've told me that I can't pay this fee with the funds available on the platform, but that I have to pay it with funds from another portfolio. If I don't do this, I won't be able to recover my funds on this platform.

The name of the platform is Hitcoin. Here is the message sent by customer service:

Hello, after the Global Banking Regulatory Commission audits your HITCOIN account, according to the standards of the Turkish Tax Authority, investors need to pay 10% tax to the market exchange and the Global Banking Regulatory Commission. Calculate the tax you need to pay based on your profit in the HITCOIN market, -----*10%=---- The tax you need to pay is $----

Pursuant to Rule 21(2) of the Treaty Rules of the Global Banking Regulatory Commission. For tax purposes, all secondary market investors must deposit taxable funds in the secondary market through an external wallet. Taxes cannot be deducted from the account, and you can withdraw all funds in the account after completing the tax payment

Do you think this is a scam or can I pay safely?

Thank you in advance for your help.

100% scam because what’s the difference between your funds on their platform from the funds from external wallet. They considering your funds in their platform as their own now which is why they are asking you to deposit more. 100% scam move here by fake services.

This topic is appropriate on scam accusation/service discussion rather than Bitcoin discussion. Move button is located below your thread once you click edit.

If you had IQ above 50, you would realize while typing this post out that it was an obvious scam. So you didn't thought this was a scam, that proves your IQ is way below 50.
In that case, let me tell you that it's a scam. I hope this is the answer you were looking for. Have a good day.

How you guys only get to locate this forum after you've been "supposedly" scammed beggars explanation and the only explanation that best suits is that this isn't a genuine newbie account. Two things are involved here – 1. It's either the OP just made up the story to court sympathy or 2, they're ashamed to post from their main account.

I mean, for crying out loud, how do you invest in something a random person online introduced to you without doing due diligence on it? With a simple click on search engine should give you an idea what that site is all about. Well, I know I sound harsh on this and that's because we've hammered severally on something like this here. Verify first before investing, always.

The name "Hitcoin" might have been derived from the Hitcoin project it's self to be able to convince their victims that they are to some point real. As the Hitcoin has some huge volume across big exchanges, which their name could be used to scam some newbies on the crypto industry.

To answer your question: as others have said above this is a pure scam scheme, they have achieved your first deposit now they need more money from you to sponsor their luxury life which is why they will definitely give you a huge profit so that your 10% tax they demand will be high enough and not something cheap. I doubt you will have any profit less down $10,000 as 10% of $10k is $1k which is enough to pay them for their drama. Just give up the chase and forget the money as they will never be pull out of that site.

Don't take offence even if it has a lengthy explanation the result will still change because such a thing is a scam.
Such services are quite widespread and are targeted at beginners and when you make more deposits it is unlikely that the money will be returned.
In your writing, indirectly in the first paragraph you have already deposited there and that means there is a small chance that your money is not safe and I recommend not to deposit again because it will only make you suck again in terms of your finances.
The most important thing in this case is not to be seduced by new people, especially from the internet that you have not recognised before.

Budy its definitely a scam as above the demonstration said what the difference between the funds on the similar platform and the funds on the other platform. Hmm i wont be rude haha because, I've done thing like that before so i dont have any right to Bash you or anyone else. Be careful is my only advice to you.

A 100 percent scam bud, and it's even a very old strategy, I wonder how this stupid scammers still get hold of you guys, unfortunately, you are asking this question very late, as I believe you must have probably deposited some money into this platform in the past which through it, you've invested or traded and made profit, now they are asking you to make another deposit before they finally lock you out completely.

Don't listen to whatever big  Grammer they are blowing, it's a scam, don't give them any dime of your hard earned money anymore.

They want 10% more apart from the coins you deposited lol that's definitely a scam. Well its understandable since OP is new, he could just take this as his scam experience. There are lots more you will encounter soon especially if you make it public to the social media that you are a crypto investor. Scammers are tireless and they will keep sending you messages.

It's easier to separate your social media personal account from your social media throw-away account. Beware all the time of the scam.

Sad to hear that, but this platform is scamming you, you should talk to another supporter or team member of the platform because sometimes only one person is harming the reputation of a platform by doing such acts. So, try to contact other team members on there social media handles. Try to tell the whole story in one message.

And, ask on there social networks to give back your money. i wasn't able to find the exact link of the platform, if you could then i might look into it (i am not a professional) but i might give you some suggestions. (But you have to DYOR too). If they still do not give you money back then report their all accounts as scammers. so at least other will save themselves from such scammers.

Beware, it seems deceptive platform out there waiting to mislead you, whether you deposit 10% as a tax or not. Even if you comply and pay the 10%, they won't return your funds. It's best to accept the loss and avoid falling into this new scam. Legitimate platforms typically deduct taxes directly from your account, not ask for external payments. Never trust random individuals online. If you plan to send funds to any platform, engage with the community first to share thoughts and gather insights. Stay vigilant and protect yourself from potential scams.

Op you don't have to ask this question, this is pure scam. According to Nigerian slang,  " You have enter one chanced" . If you are pay any tax to the Turkish government, Hitcoin company has to pay it on behalf of you and not you paying directly to the government. State Governments can't tax individuals on cryptocurrency because of it decentralization but they are taxing the individual through the trading platforms and centralized exchange platforms. So as this Hitcoin trading platform is telling you to pay the 10% from another source meaning you have already lost your funds in their platform already now they are planning to scam you from another ways.

So the earlier you realize that you have been scammed and you better quit from any dealing with them before they take big amount of money from you.

Thank you very much for all your replies.

I understand that I got scammed. I invested money I needed so it puts me in a difficult position.
However, I will not continue on this scam so I will not pay them more.

it's extremely obvious that it is a scam. it baffles me that you decided to actually deposit on it. did you even do any kind of research about the trading site? because if you did, I am 100% certain that you would never ever consider depositing on that site. the best thing you can do now is to forget about the money you deposited and ignore any contact attempts they make.

I am not going to state the obvious as everyone knows what is going on, however why did you decided to listen to someone you met online? You said you made sure you could send your money back to binance, why use an exchange you have never heard of if you had a binance account? What was what you did that convinced you that you could send your funds back to binance? Anyway I am sorry about your loss but anyone with some common sense could have avoided it.

I recommend editing your post and excluding the web address. There's no need to share a potentially fraudulent site here, as it may pique curiosity and lead some individuals to visit it, putting them at risk of falling into a trap. Moreover, your post might unintentionally mislead others. If you still wish to reference the website, consider placing it within a code block like this

Obviously a scam. Don't listen to any stranger in Telegram, Twitters and other social networks. Those are all scams, no matter what they promise you. Sooner or later your money will be gone even if they "show" you examples of people taking money out. It makes part of the advertising.

The site is just newly registered; it's barely been a week. It looks all scam to me. Try to do some background checks on some sites that you want to entrust your money with. As such, the site doesn't have a physical office and doesn't have any user reviews or feedback as it's too new for anyone to have used it before, I guess you are part of their first victim.



 Source  (https://www.whois.com/whois/hitcoin.cc)

It's good that you ask it here first and I hope that you are truly asking for advise because most of the time, there are newbies who have some intention to promote their platform here just to scam people.

In any case, it's obvious that this is a scam attempt. If I'm in your case, then it's better if you will buy your own crypto and then store it in your wallet without any services help from this services. As for the tax, it's just another attempt to get money from you.

Bro through and through this thing is a scam. No way this isn't.

What the customer service is basically telling you is this:

"Hey, we need you to deposit more funds so we can steal more from you hehe thanks". I can tell you're not someone who's accustomed to the ins and outs of bitcoin and crypto, but anyone with a modicum of internet knowledge would know that this is a scam cause no type of service out there will go out of their own way to ask you to pay them more unless it's for a service that you subscribed for. Add to this the fact that they are literally advertising themselves as an exchange/crypto trading platform, which by the by, does not require you to pay for a joiner's fee in order to register. That's just stupid. Consider your money gone now.

Do you require a seer to inform you that the platform is set up to scam trusting individuals like you? You must understand that there is no such thing as free money in the crypto world. Avoid any platforms that promise you money since they'll eventually figure out a means to take money from you.

This is how platforms reach out to those who enjoy receiving free money without having to put in any effort to work for it. Knowing full well that it will attract those who will fall for it in the manner you desire.

Try to still report them to your local cyber crimes dept. - police

While it's not necessarily a sure way to recover your money because the chances are really low imo, it's possible the information you'll be presenting could help the investigators one day. FYI this is a popular scam scheme and the chances that your scammer is a part of a large scam ring (or large ring in the making) isn't zero. I advise to include as much information as you can specially the addresses used.

Sorry to say that but I guess your investment is gone. Hitcoin website doesn't seem to work anymore as well. Don't even think about sending these scammers anything.


Just wondering how were you able to check that? Did you actually withdraw the funds?

When scammers create malicious websites or trading and earning platforms, they may make withdrawal open to the victim if the money they deposited is small, this will build trust in the victim and allow them to deposit again, and this time they'll deposit a bigger amount of money because they now trust the platform, and that's when they'll lock withdrawal and start asking for more money from the victim. I believe this is what happened to the op.

I'll explain, buddy. Signs smell like three-week-old tuna. No respectable cryptocurrency platform pays taxes or fees to a separate account, especially with money from a different portfolio. Someone may be trying to scam you.

I'll explain business rules. Trading charges are deducted from assets first. Second, you, your local tax agency, and your accountant handle taxes, not your trading site.

I love Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Our love of technology shouldnt blind us to the truth that the Internet is full with wolves in sheep's clothing. Be safe

That's an aggressive scammer all they aim is to scam the individuals and you can find that also YouTube and other social media platform, sorry if you ever had money in that exchange,

First how did you get the platform, there are some determine factors I use to check out a real profile.
There are many skills that these men of the underworld surface.

Sorry about your loss. I hope you've learnt a lesson or two from that experience. As a base rule of thumb, always remember that anything that sounds too good to be true (offers, deals, interests, etc) then it's probably NOT TRUE. It's fascinating how far scammers are willing to go these days that they create a full fledged site and parade it as a "broker" or investment platform.

Ensure you vet every single information you receive from anyone on the internet especially if they are strangers.


Great idea. Might not help much with OP's case but having a record of it might come in handy one day.

---

I'm not sure why it's still too easy to scam even more people in present day crypto space.

For these scammers, it is still quite easy because there are still gullible people who will believe their stunts.
If the OP searched about the reviews or asked first about this site, maybe, he won't be in this situation.
However, it is already too late as these scammers got a hold already of his funds, so won't get it back anymore.
Maybe, move this thread to scam accusations board so users will be warned about this site.
I don't know how the OP found this site, but this is a new site, which they can abandon easily and create a new one.

This will definitely be a good idea, as it might be easier for the authorities to trace those involved using the details that could be found on the site register, but I doubt if those scammers will be stupid enough to use their real contact information knowing that it could be used to trace them.

Sorry Buddy, but you don’t listen to what others tell you online without having to do your own proper research about it. This is money we are talking about and you need not be careless with it when you’re investing. Sorry for your loss.


You still have this mindset that you wanna pay them? That’s scary of you to even think of such. But since you want to recover your initial funds, having such notion is unavoidable. Sorry you had to learn a lesson this way and thanks for sharing to let many people know about them.

@OP the scenario you are currently in is more likely a scam.  There is no such crypto exchange that implements taxes, I have been using many exchanges and none of them charge for tax.  It is more likely that you are already scammed of your fund and the scammer wanted to milk you more by triggering the need to pay in order to get your larger amount.

That is a bull when some site requires you to deposit more for tax reasons when you already have the fund on their platform.  These scammers really know how to make their victims confused.   

100% red flag. No matter how friendly and how pretty her profile image is just ignore it. An unknown exchange is another red flag. By the looks of it seems like you still deposit and will end up regretting it. If you know how binance basic exchange process and withdrawal works, then that's how a legit exchange works. An exchange that ask more deposit so you can withdraw the balance is pure scam, remember it.

It’s obviously a scam, you are a newbie here so you probably haven’t visited the scam accusations board in the forum. There are lots of similar reports of such scams on that board. It’s a old trick and only works on unsuspecting newbies, the scammer plays the role of a friend to gain the trust of his victim and then tell them about a lucrative business proposal. People need to realize that bitcoin is not magic money and that certain ROI are unrealistic and should be considered a red flag when making investments.

That's scam for sure. There is not even a tax regulation about that in Türkiye. There is no limit to the lies these scammers will tell.
OP, are you Turkish? I hope you didn't lose too much money.

Once it comes to meeting someone random over the Web, it's just preeminent that, the outcome won't be for your good.
I often wonder if you guys get to ask the question,
Why me?
Does this person not have family, neighbours and friends to help get rich?
Just why any random person over the internet?
The next is, why do this person always has the time to seek me out?

This is just a scam and you've played right into it. There scheme comes in steps and they are unto the second phase to it now, haven't stimulated your greed with the profits on your supposedly investment. Best thing for you is to assume what has been invested is lost and move on.

So what makes you believe offers from unknown people on the internet? Did you use Binance before? That means you already know about the market and are not new to the market. If I am not mistaken, you became greedy because they gave you some great favor, and you fell into their trap. I don't want to check about that exchange, but if they ask you to pay extra to withdraw your assets, it is a scam exchange, and you cannot get your money back. Condolences for your loss.

If you feel suspiscious of something then avoid engaging into it. Investment already has risk therefore you shouldn't be dealing with platforms giving you doubts already. Since you are in this industry already, there are other projects to invest but if you are not knowledgeable enough with most of the things, there are established tokens to choose from in order to lessen your worries.Well there are instances as well that suggestions are good but yes  an unknown exchanger is risky. It may not be a scam but if the exchanger won't be trusted by investors and users, then eventually it will more likely fall along with your invested fund.

With the response and proves provided by some senior colleagues e.g @Nwada001 shows that it's all scam. Pardon my manners mate but I will say that you were so naive to fall for the trick but nobody is perfect we all make mistakes but hope this is now a lesson. Additionally, investing in cryptocurrencies or investing in Bitcoin is not a get rich quick stuff. It takes a while to become your dreams, so investment or should I say falling for tricks of this nature is as a result of you trying to get rich too quick. Everything has procedures which must be followed if you tryna skip one then you will fail so consistency on the right things is the best thing to do.
Binance is a very simple application to if you want to invest or trade you don't need anyone to trade for you rather you need to learn how to trade yourself. Buy and hold or buy and sell when the price is high that's the simple rule.

The chances of the OP being Turkish are really high, as these scammers formulate some tax law that never existed anywhere with the victim's country's regulatory name for it to sound convincing. I've come across a similar case where the scammer went as far as furging some PDF files, claiming they were from the SEC, and asking for tax from their US victims. There is no length that these scammers don't go to just to make their stories look real.

Sometimes, in order for an investor to learn, they need to experience it themselves. You're one of them.

You invested the money that you really needed base on what you said, but the only thing that you can do now is to move on, move forward, and learn from the mistakes that you've done. Many here experienced the same things that you experienced OP. I know that many here fell to these type of scams, and there are some who fell into different types of scams. Getting scammed once is still a good thing because at least you will learn from it, and you will not fall again next time, but getting scammed twice or even thrice then there's a problem with you already, and maybe just stop investing, or rather in some safe assets like Bitcoin, or Stock Market.

Don't pay them anymore. Many here already said that it's a scam, and I agree with them. Now OP I hope you learned a lesson from this mistake, and don't ever, ever do it again. :)

That's the thing with all these scammers with different platforms, that's why till today I respect this forum and appreciate being here.
Scammers have a way to make you feel comfortable in doing things their way, take a look as they let you get your fund in their platform and made you believe you can get your fund back, ones they know you have given them what they want that's when you can't even make any withdrawal or transfer and anything that made you fund from another portfolio that the end and you'd be losing huge.

What? How did you make sure that it is possible to transfer the funds back to Binance at any time? Did someone from this Hitcoin scam promised you that you will be able to recover your funds at any time? Why are you so gullible? Do you even know how crypto transactions work?
Global banking regulatory commission? What kind of BS is this?
I have to admit that Hitcoin is a pretty good name for a crypto trading platform. It's sad that such catchy name has been used for a scam.
I really want some legit crypto company to buy a domain and register a trademark with that name, so it won't be used by the scammers.

Very good dear you have pointed out a good point here that we all should consider while entrusting our money. I still doubt after reading few replies that the OP is telling true. Because this is just a technique to gain traffic for free and he might be doing that by making false statements. But i think i am wrong here as why would he do that by making his platform's image dirty.

It might be the rivals of newly made platform Hitcoin, like many rivals try to degrade their competitors by creating their image bad. But such cases needed to be dealt with solid proofs and i think OP should provide them.

A question that always begs for an answer is, why do people wait until they have scammed 100% or the scam cycle has been completed before they seek for help or open up to other people in the community?

No need to be hard on the OP. He probably realises his mistake now and has learned. Like someone said, the amount you have in that crypto trading platform is the tuition you have paid for this scam. I hope you are smart enough now to spot scams like this.

I don't want to sound but is this for real? What does it even mean that you met someone on internet who told you to invest in some unknown crypto trading platform? I just don't understand who someone can fall for something like that. Why should someone you don't know giving you suggestions? And especially, why should you even listen to this guy? Of course you've been scammed.

Because people feel embarrased to admit themselves and to others that they have been scammed in a such way. Also, when you see reactions like "If you had IQ above 50, you would realize while typing this post out that it was an obvious scam. So you didn't thought this was a scam, that proves your IQ is way below 50[/i]",  so no wonder that many people decide to rather suck it up then ask for help.


That's a pretty common scam tactic in which "female" contacts the victim, flirts with him for some time and then moves conversation towards "incredible investment opportunity on xyz platform". Men (and women) tend to switch off their brain when they fall in love and scammers are very well aware of that.

Yes, I am very well aware of that, pretty much every single day someone contacts me on Telegram asking me how I'm doing and if I'm interested in investing in some very legit platform and/or company that surely can give me a daily return of 5-10-20%  ::)

This is just like a newer version of the Nigerian prince emails, nothing more, nothing less. I just don't get it, it's like if someone on the street asks you to give him $50 telling you he's going to be right back with $100, he just needs to get into his car to get you the money. Would people fall for something like that? At this point I would say yes.

If you ever come across a person where he advises you to invest in his own platform. So of course you should avoid those people but it will be good for you otherwise you will surely suffer. Many times it is seen in Telegram that many scammers show various lures to introduce different platforms with messages. And with links to various platforms, they talk about investing there and make many other offers. And if you come across those scammers will definitely try to trap you in various ways so you should stay away from those notifications. If you are asked to deposit your money into an account on such a platform, then you will definitely face a lot of problems in withdrawing them later. If you have to withdraw your money with a 10% fee, then the full fee appears to apply. So you know all these things clearly and then try to invest in those platforms it will be good for you.

It is a little bit more elaborated than that because scammers invest more time and effort in order to fool the victim, compared to nigerian prince email scam. Some scammes play very long game and are willing to chat with victim for months before they go on the actual scam.

It does sound stupid to us that know about that scamming technique and generally have experience, but many people are gullibl and not aware of all the dangers on the Internet.

Already sound like an imitation of Bitcoin which they called "Hitcoin", well from your post OP, it seems that in just a few sentences we can already say it's a scam. Since you'll have to pay 10% as a fee to recover your funds? Which you can't experience in other platforms unless that gas is high. And never ever trust someone's link even if you consider that person a friend, Why? Because people could quickly get their hands on someone's account just to manipulate you into thinking that's them. And those links or sites might be a drainer for your wallets. If you're smart you wouldn't risk your funds to unknown platforms and even do more deep research regarding those topics. It's too impulsive to try it out first without gathering more information.

Are they trying to send you a PM in advance so that you are tricked by the offer to follow the steps given to mislead you?

Once again people who are not in the know then it is a scam, you have to avoid it, well this is very unfortunate because if it's like this then your money will never come back again as expected.

I said,,, there are many platforms that they just created to resemble exchanges and they used to spread through PM with the lure of the lure of getting big bonuses,, know that it is nonsense and is trying to deceive many people.

I recently heard about the platform and wondered why investors must pay a 10% tax to the market exchange and the commission. Where did you meet this person and how did he find you?

If you meet someone on the internet that you don't know at all, you shouldn't immediately believe what they have to offer. You should know more about what it offers to be sure about it. But I still don't want to follow him, especially if I don't know the person.

I'd rather stick with the platform I already use than get scammed. If you can withdraw all your money on the platform, withdraw immediately before you regret it and never deal with that person again.

I don't know, if you are into bitcoin and you even know how to transfer money online it means that you're supposed to know a couple of things about internet, no? I have friends who know zero about bitcoin and when they wanted to buy something I literally had to open the exchange account for them because they weren't absolutely able to do it alone. I just don't understand why someone should start talking with some random guy and before he "invests" the money and only later he checks on this forum.

Anyway I hope it wasn't a lot of money, it's a good lesson for the future, we all make mistakes at the end.

This is absolutely a Scam, @OP. To avoid this from happening, learn not to trust any third party with your funds, mostly on the internet. You can't just trust anyone who asks you to invest with an agreed-upon ROI. Some of these offers always come with a huge return on investment, which plays a role in getting Investors to be more attracted to them. If you want to trade, then you should learn how to do it yourself, or if you feel it will be a big risk for you, then you just have to invest in Bitcoin and hold it in your wallet.

My question is that why did you share with us here when you were initiating the business and possibly before you deposited money into that online trading platform? What I understand most at times is that, during business negotiation you people don't always come to seek out from people who are here to know whether the trading platform is real or not.. Maybe after victim that is when you people will always come to know whether your being scammed or not. If you must know, you have just been scammed so do not send any money as an additional fee otherwise all money including your capital and interest will be gone.

Best of luck to you of course I'm so sorry to say I think this is a scam. Hit coin is one of the biggest exchange currency new scammers out there so you should proceed with caution and do your research. Since you have to pay 10% free I will tell you that you should not trust any such link as it may harm you.

It won't look impulsive for someone who wants to make money fast from investing in whatever they are told or introduced to. It is easy to scam people when you promise them interest or APY, people are ready to lock their funds up in risky platforms just because of APY and they will register and deposit their money to trading groups, because they were promised a high interest rate. Most of the people that are scammed are the ones that are greedy and want to make money very fast.
There is no money to withdraw because the scammers won't allow you claim it, and even if you pay what they ask for now, they'll never stop asking for more until you stop sending.

It baffles me how people still fall for such simple scam like this in this 2023, whereby a total stranger could just invite you to an unknown investment platform and you go about putting your hard earn money without considering to Do Your Own Research on all social media and online review platforms such as "scamadviser.com" and "trustpilot.com"

The big mistake here is that you let your greed get the best of you, it's rare to get a recommendation about an investment opportunities on the Internet that did not turn out to be a scam.

Joining an exchange should not be something you just jump into especially if it's a centralized exchange, you are not only at the risk of getting scammed I believe if you were demanded to give out documents then you can also fall victim of identity theft.

My brother you need no soothsayer, prophet or prophetess on this to let u know that this is 100% scam.
Come to think of this, you made an investment with them and u have reach all necessary criteria set out by then, now u want to withdraw, they are now tell u that u have to bring money outside the one u have raised with them, the question is.. Does it mean their currency is invalid or not a legal tender, why can't they calculate the 10% from what you have developed with them already?

This is a fake process in all encompassing I mean a  deceit of the highest order. Please Don't pay their so called calculated 10% or what ever that suits there dirty poverty mentality.

What I have to tell you in this, is that scam is of different derivatives and we have to be aware of scam because scammers always scam people through investment platform, so before you venture into scam i will like to advice you to  tr make inquiring first before any kind of investment. From your statement I found out that you should leave the platform before if you continue with the direction of the customer service it will trigger you to deposit more and its what they needed from you. So don't continue with them until you get your fund's back, I will not conclude now that their scammers.

Why did they even tag it "Nigeria Prince Mail" even when the scam is being performed by outsiders? The country's name is still attached to it. That's by the way.
 
Regarding the scammers, having read and experienced most of their tactics, most of them are advanced in their methods in such a way that even someone with knowledge of scams will still likely fall victim to their lies. As they always have specific victims for various scam methods. The most common ones on the internet now are romance scams, where the victims are always either divorcees or single moms or dads who are most times desperate to meet a new partner in life, and the scammer will present themselves as their dream lover, meeting up all their expectations, not knowing all those things are just to convince them in order for trust to be built. It's when trust is being built that those scammers can scam their victims successfully without the victim even realizing that they are being scammed as they are being blindfolded with love.

I would say that the main reason is because that email was mentioning a Nigerian prince, so that is the easiest way to refer to that scam. No one is actually going to investigate if the IP address sending the email is from Nigeria or some other country or even continent.

Anyway Nigeria is always one of the leading countries in the world when we talk about scams, that is simply a fact, I'm not judging:
- https://siccura.com/top-10-scamming-countries-in-the-world-to-be-aware/
- https://www.techbusinessnews.com.au/top-5-scamming-coutries-in-the-world-in-2023/
- https://www.analyticsinsight.net/top-10-internet-scamming-countries-in-the-world-in-2023/

You are scammed mate , obviously that there is no way that you will be getting your money back , so the only thing now to do is never to trust this kind of approach and also try to ask the community everytime that you have no idea what are you entering specially in cases like this.

sad to see that you need to learn that a hard way but next time ? before investing do as what you did here and that is to ask the community first before investing in any thing that you dont know or understand .
and also never entertain random messages in Email because there is the place where scam mostly to happen.
be this a lesson for you never to apply the same action again most specially in crypto currency where bait are always being casted for victims to fall .

It was a painful and expensive lesson but that doesn't mean the end for the OP. I believe anyone entering the market will suffer similar losses and this is not necessarily a bad thing. Losses give us lessons that no other person's advice can match. Moreover, from those losses, we will know how to listen and absorb advice from more experienced people, because newbies are very stubborn and will usually never listen to anyone's advice until they make a mistake.

OP, sorry for your loss but I think it's a good thing for you too.

Well, you've been officially scammed by the person who suggested you to invest in a crypto trading platform that doesn't even exist in reality, and you, even knowing that the platform doesn't exist or you've never heard of it, agreed to do what he said and invested your money, and, you've also increased the volume of your investment, and now you are here asking the public whether the 10% fee they are asking for is them scamming you or not.

This is why you first need to learn about an industry before you get involved financially, if you had studied the industry and had some knowledge and experience, you wouldn't have to face this because you would never believe some stranger suggesting you to make investments on a certain platform of their choice.

you have already got the answer , better to close this thread now and learn your lessons.

Exactly my thought, and to even think OP hasn't been around these past days after opening this thread makes it all amusing that they aren't even reading here. It behooves the moderators to lock this thread up now.

It seems that a lot of advice has been given, and you just have to do as it has been said. You don't need to be discouraged that many others have also experienced something like you, and you should continue to update and learn a lot so you won't fall into the same trap. For me, what you have asked here is something that is true, and you just have to follow it according to what you can do.Do not believe if someone asks for payment for any purpose because it is clear that the request is not true.

This is totally a scam. It's really funny where Hitcoin comes from. You should have understood that any good project will charge 10% fee. Of course,it is understood first by hearing its name and secondly by asking for a 10% fee. There are thousands of scam projects on Telegram that you should avoid. Hopefully you will not encounter this scam again in the future and you will easily understand what is a scam and what is not a scam.

There's no point to be insultive and get corky about it. That's not necessary. Isn't things like this what the forum is created for?
He made a mistake and now you want to make him feel bad about it. That's not fair at all.
You can either choose to answer him or ignore him, there's no point attacking his IQ level and indirectly calling him dumb for asking a simple question. A question that is not even like the other unnecessary questions we see on the forum.
Stop discouraging newbies. It's a learning process, we're all learning. I'm certain some gurus in the forum made even graver mistakes.

Not even close from not being an obvious scam.  ;D

I mean all the alarm bells are ringing like crazy when I am reading this.

Still surprised things like this one still work and people invest and lose their money. You really must have no experience or sense of something fishy is going on to fall for this.

I can speak from experience, since I was in contact with a scammer group gutting Japanese business men in a "good to be true investment" scam. These people are successful business owners, and still they got blinded by empty promises. Greed and the promise of easy returns make them blind, that's how the best scams work. Even when I told them to not invest with these people, to just do the math, they didn't listen. 3 months later the money was gone, at least half a million $ .

No words.

It is 100% scam and you no longer need to invest or trade on the platform. Because I have never heard of the Global Banking Regulatory Commission or any such institution affiliated with a crypto trading platform. So if you can, it's good that you withdraw all your funds from their platform and no longer need to deal with them. Hopefully the money you deposit can be withdrawn as soon as possible.

I find your narrative to be amusing. What is it about this that you can't figure out on your own? You must already be aware of the solution, so why bring it up here again.?However, if you are aware that you made an investment in the platform from which you claimed to have received a call, they may call you to inform you of the status of your investments and to identify which legitimate digital investments you have made. If they have the time, they may even contact their customers to ask for a 10% payment to gain access to their investments. That is something I have never heard before. Therefore, if you are aware that you invest, it is acceptable for you to continue researching on them and learning more about how they function. However, if you haven't done business with them, why are you bordering yourself?


This is unquestionably a scam. It doesn't seem plausible to me that you could get a call like that from someone claiming to be from a platform where you made an investment. It's up to you now to decide whether you want to pay the money or keep it safe; even if it's real, you need to do some research about it before doing so. That is, if you know you have an investment there, you should know how they operate.

I understand that you are trying to give your idea about op's post I also recognize the internet is all about free speech but try to censor your post and make your choice of words wisely I believe if a more established member had said this your reply would be different and quiet censored so try to treat all members equally when addressing them.please try not to sound offensive when addressing someone that is my point

To me, these are seriously derogatory words.  it's true that the OP made the fatal mistake of joining an exchange without any reputation, but if we can't help him or can't sympathize with his loss, we shouldn't insult them either.  we do not have that right, and it is not certain that we are smarter and richer than them.  I don't know if this ImThour guy is smarter than anyone when it comes to making such insults, but what he said shows that he is a person who does not deserve respect.

This is a complete scam, and you are to blame for falling for it by falling into his trap. How could you trust someone you met online who introduced you to a trading platform? After he told you about the platform and encouraged you to invest in it, weren't you supposed to do more research on it? The internet is full with scammers, and we learn something new every day about how individuals scam one another online. However, I believe this experience has taught you a valuable lesson as well: why can't they deduct the fees from the available funds? Why don't you have a look at that? Your funds has already been scam, so my suggestion to you is to stop making deposits if you don't want to lose everything.

I dare to bet anyone that no one is without mistakes when starting to enter this market even this guy who insults others is no exception. So it's bad that we, as long-time investors, can't give them good advice, and conversely, we insult them. I agree with you, like many other topics here, if we disagree or don't like what they say, we can ignore it. We don't need to attack them so ridiculously, this is really unacceptable and a shame that it comes from a legendary member of the forum.

You've been sniped.

That's why it is important not to post your cryptocurrency related stuff in the internet because scammer will surely target you to become their victim. Most of them are using hot girls profiles, but if you're good enough, you can easily tell they are just posers since their friends are all guys, mostly indians or random guys that are easily fooled by catfishes in the internet.

So beware of them, trust your instincts.

This is a big and 100% scam an
D you need to run immediately  and I believe  you've already made some good and reasonable deposit to the platform but I want you to call it an end and run if you still want to have your funds with you.

I believe  you must have heard alot of positive responses from people and you need to stop connecting with that platform and also disassociate  yourself from it because it already a very obvious scam that wouldn't lead to any tangibal result.

I'm sorry you have to fall for these scams and I always feel bad when I see people falling for scams like this because I was also a victim of such scam.

What will they say next? The amount you send to us is not near what we asked for? Then they will ask for another transaction. This time they will say that you can not send the missing amount as that is too small to be considered as a transaction. Then they will ask for the fee with full amount that they will give you. The moment I saw that they asked you to calculate the fee amount, this is what came to my mind.

There's no way this is a legit thing. It screams scam right to your face. What you have in that wallet/account, consider it lost. Don't try to get it back or listen to them. Don't put a penny in that thing.
Move on to something new and consider this a lesson. Don't make the same mistake again.

First rule of trading, don't invest in anything that has to do with trading platfrom be it crypto or non-crypto trading platforms because 99% of them are most often than not scammers that will just run away with your money, they are liars, con artist, pretenders and, there testimonies, reviews and ROI are all lies, they are fake and nothing more. It will cost you nothing but your time and capital to start learning how to trade, the next time you see anything similar like this, just run away from them.


The scammers are daft and not even smart, but perhaps there are people that may fall for this kind of scams, the Global banking Regulatory commision will stood so low to audit your account as if you are investing millions of dollars into that company, that is the first red flag and the second red flag is the 10% they are asking, you are the one to pay the tax from your account and not from the company if at all they are even real, there responsibility is to make profit and charge for there service to begin with. I hope prior to my reply, you have not pay a dim to them, they are scammers even from the write up. Once you receieve such kind of message or mail that is so good to be true, just have it at the back of your mind that you are about to be scam.

SMH. Now the mean comments here are completely unnecessary. I am also however never ceased to be amazed at the lack of homework people do before making such investments.  This is something you should have been asking before ever getting involved in it.  Now I know you know this, but it's a valuable lesson hopefully learned.

As a financial advisor spotting scams is a big part of what I do for a living, and there's no question at all that this is one.

The scammers know that the people have become intelligent, and they need to come with new ways to scam people, the ways which do not look scam at the first sight like asking to pay for taxes etc. Some people will find these things legit and they may pay these scammers keep their business running. :(

Some sites may also give you free money and ask you to deposit certain amount as a proof that you are a human and not a robot. In shorts, many scams are being taking place in cryptocurrency world and one need not to be greedy and do not fall for any offer which seems too easy to get the money.

Remember making money is always hard and usually easy ways to earn money will lead to scam.

I am not so sure I agree with your opinion that people are becoming smarter regarding the behaviors of scammers, a portion of us is in fact improving and getting smarter, but many people never learn, they get scammed and then they fall victims of another scam that is very similar to the one they fell before, after all at their core all scams are the same, the scammer tries to convince you to give them some money in exchange for nothing at all.

It could be the other way around, scammers are getting smarter while people are getting smart.  Scammers keep on thinking tricks and traps so that they can extort money from unsuspecting investors.  Just like what happened to @OP, they already rob @OP's fund while asking @OP for another money so that they will release the funds.  These scammers made an urgency so that @OP will comply thinking that he will get his larger fund if he send the stated tax.

Scammers make us of "the need to do" strategy to milk more money from their victims.  I hope @OP did not give in to the demand of these scammers.

They don't say anything after that, they will simply block him from everywhere, he won't be able to access the website, he won't be able to send any messages to them, everything just vanishes and that is when he will realize that it was all a scam and he has been robbed out of his money. Such scams are increasing day by day and they mainly target newbies because they know they are the most vulnerable cryptocurrency users out there and it is easy to convince them for something like this.

And newbies get trapped in these things pretty easily only because they have the mindset that they can earn a lot of money in a very short period of time with cryptocurrencies, and when they hear the promises made by these scammers, they think that they are actually going to get that much money.

Oh no, not true at all. I have seen this happen to a younger brother of mine. He was new to the concept of cryptocurrency. He asked me after sending the fee. He heard that I was involved with crypto from a friend of mine. Then he contacted me. He had already sent the money that they asked for. And then they were saying just what I said in my previous reply. They were asking for more money as it was not "the exact amount" they have asked for. First, he was asking me if I had that many assets in crypto. So I asked why he need that. Then he told me the whole story. So I told him to contact them and tell them that they can take the fee from the account if needed and why should he pay more. So then after talking more, they blocked him. So I guess if they get the first "fee" they will try to get more from you.

It is best to stop at the first one. Never send any more money to them. It is a scam and it's written all over it.

This line right here,  I would already call it a possible scam. Even if it is like just looking like a cheap promotion of whatever coin they're selling, I am not going to bite the bullet just to waste my time into it. And bruh, HITCOIN? Are you being for real? Do they know how many with "S" are out there (yeah Shitcoins) and now they're just putting their coin into shame.

I wouldn't even bother discussing with this further since it is definitely just a clear scam.

One thing I'll advice you not to take anyone who ask you to invest on social media or online, it is only a scammer that wants to scam you that will ask you to invest, they do not know you or care about you. All they want is to Just succeed to in collecting the money you have. Be careful with platform you found yourself, most of the crypto platform are just scam platform,  which you don't need to take anyone you come across in the platform as a friend.  People you meet in online platform are strangers who are looking for who to scam.

Don't be too fast to rush into things like this. First, you got a message from someone who you don't know, telling you to invest in a trading platform that you also know nothing about, and you went ahead and did that. Are you kidding?
This is a pure scam! Moreover, if it was legit, I don't see how they can't take the fee from the money you have already deposited on the platform. They are scammers, they have already taken your money from you and just trying new tactics to get more money out from your pocket. I would advise you to run now!

Yes, they won't rush to block us, instead they will drain our pockets until we run out of money or when we discover their scam. This is an old form of trick but there are still some newbies who still fall for the trap. It's confusing for newbies when they rush into the market without even equipping themselves with the basics.
But honestly, I don't feel sorry for the OP, and I think it's good for him because he learned a valuable lesson from it. No one doesn't make mistakes in the early days and I'm sure he will grow up.

That is it, I don't know why they are taxing the ops 10% because most stock brokers charge 3% and deductions are done from the user's balance, nkf is being asked to deposit a fresh amount while his funds are already locked in there, truly this is a known scam, and ops should consider the money gone, and the best the g to do i. This situation is to move one and report that platform to the authority if he can.

Any platform asking you to deposit before you withdraw your balance is a potential scam, and if there should be any charges they will be on your balance and not being asked to make new deposits.

I mean what's the reason for using that cryptocurrency platform? Because if it wasn't really that useful since you already have Binance which is already trusted by the community if it wasn't a great reason use need to use that platform just avoid using that platform, I mean I don't think 10% is reasonable at all I wouldn't do any transaction on that platform if they are going to do 10% every time. So for me, 10% is already a red flag this is more likely to be a scam for sure, so avoid putting more money on the platform, they probably doing it so that people are going to put more money in the platform, encouraging investors, etc is what they want.

There are a lot of alternatives that are already trusted by the community and if your going to the high-interest rate Binance is probably the best exchange where you could do that, there are a lot of other platforms as well but on Binance you could easily trade that investment since its already an exchange, avoid using centralized platform, I wouldn't really recommend putting your money on long term on Binance or another centralized platform, but Binance is convenient on trading.

90% of online business is a scam, platform that requires you to deposit money and refer friends before you can withdraw is a scam, you can't just join platform that you don't know anything about, someone just send you platform link you should deposit money inside without having any experience with it before, and you recharge the platform account. However, it is beneficial to take risks since if you do not, it would be difficult to identify a reliable platform. I'm sorry that the money you previously invested as a capital has vanished; don't try to send any dollars to them as fees; the platform is a fraud; and you should ponder before doing anything.

People come to this market other than to make money, there is no second reason and the reason why they fall into those traps is also because of money. They want to make a lot of money without putting in too much effort, and that's what any newbies wants. And of course, scammers always grasp that fatal weakness, and they will never let it go.
Not only OP, I believe many newbies will continue to fall into these old traps because human greed will never go away. But let's look at the more positive side, losing money is not the end, it's just one of thousands of lessons that we need to go through when participating in the financial markets.

Business model an hype where platform build deposit money and get referral link as many possible and earn commission trough with how many member get. For OP cases he found wrong way with deposit fund and deduct fees until 10% because all exchange not take bigger fees actually for depositing fund. I think with many responds OP have been understood what have to do exactly some one ask him for paying 10% fees commission.
Many kinds way of scammer right now, I think have to be smart and ask to group cryptocurrency channel for beginner if required for paying fees when deposit fund to start trading.  Don't be shy ask anything about rule in cryptocurrency actually about deposit and withdrawing fund due many scammer are waiting with some hasn't information about deposit fund rule.

Yeah that is obviously a scam. You should really learn to trust your "gut feeling". If something seems too good to be true or even has a tinge of the feeling that something is not right, then that becomes the point at which you should turn around and isolate yourself from the scammers.  Why would anyone demand to do your tax for you? Especially a third party cryptocurrency exchange platform?

Obviously the "customer service" is fake. And you might even not notice because some scammers use "spoofing". A technique in which the scammer can make their email address look like the real deal. But customer service will never ask you to transact any amount of money for any reason.

100% scam. Watch yourself, OP...