May i ask how people get into this situation ? I mean.. HOW did you get in contact with the scammer ? And WHAT did he tell you? And why did you try to buy it this way without knowing how bitcoin works / what bitcoin is ?
How can someone believe that some public information (address) is enough to 'own' money ? I mean.. everyone can know this address, it is public.
Because there are a LOT of people who see/read all the news about Bitcoin (and Cryptocurrency) and want to get on the cryptomoneytrain after seeing all the instagram/twitter posts by the Lamborghini driving "Insta Crypto Millionaires" but who have no real idea about how it all works.
As the famous quote goes... "There's a sucker born every minute".
#humansGonnaHuman... Greed always seems to trump commonsense (not unique to the Cryptosphere)... and with Crypto it's probably cheaper and easier to get away with, hence the proliferation of HYIP's, "Coin Doublers" and other crypto scams that abound.