Yes this is. They just got me for $25,000. You need to file a criminal complaint with action fraud debisionnof the U.K. Police. If you live in the USA you are also advised to inform the FTC as well as FinCEN the international financial crimes network. Thy are currently locking all their users out of their accounts. Once you money hits the exchange, you will never be able to widthdraw it.
Action fraud is like civil police. They are not going to contact btc-e on your behalf.
You guys should file report to proper police in your local police station and take the things from there.