Non Spendable Bitcoins (Fake funds and Watch only)

[Anthony31]

Hi I have been scammed twice this week,I'm am a newbie when it comes to investing in Bitcoin.After investing with these miners they created a Blockchain wallet which they say is unhackable and send me $320 to this wallet.It stated that it is non spendable and I couldn't touch it.I was told to send another $100 to activate my profits.Within 10 minutes the non spendable funds left my wallet again.They told me I took to long to activate it,I knew then it was a scam.Anyone has any advice for me?Is it possible to recover those funds?

[poordeveloper]

What payment method did you use for all the payments you made to the scammers?

[Anthony31]

I send it to his so called business adress,their facebook profiles looked so legit but once i called them out as scammers then they personally phoned me.Guess what,it was a pakistani and the other scammer was a nigerian.
they now have all blocked me.BYE,BYE to my $350

[HCP]

Yes, sadly, your money is gone.

This is a very old scam method... create a watching only wallet for someone with X BTC in it, claim the user needs to deposit to "unlock" funds... wait until they deposit then simply move all the funds to another wallet.

The variation on this is to setup a wallet for someone on a service like blockchain.com and tell the user they need to log in and then change the password. Meanwhile, the thief has the 12 word recovery phrase already and can therefore restore the wallet, regardless of password being changed. Then simply wait for user to start using wallet and deposit funds, then steal them all having cloned the wallet using the 12 word recovery phrase.

The learning from this scam is that you should NEVER let anyone create a wallet for you... EVER!

[pooya87]

they created a Blockchain wallet which they say is unhackable and send me $320 to this wallet.

if someone creates a bank account in their own bank and then give you the account number asking you to deposit money in that account while telling you it is "your account" will you believe them and send money to that account?
that's the same with bitcoin! when they created the wallet, they were controlling the keys to that wallet not you. and when you sent money to that wallet, you donated your money to them.

[bitmover]

Technically, he never sent you any bitcoin.

He just gave you his public address, and you were only watching his funds.... They were never yours...

Next time you need to create a personal wallet and you will give him your public address, not the opposite. Then you will track if you received coins or not.

[HeRetiK]

Sorry for your loss OP, but please also note that cloud mining contracts -- even "legit" ones -- rarely ever make a profit. Cloud mining contracts are usually set up in a way that may look good to beginners, but in reality are way too expensive to pay off or even make money on top.

If that bad experience hasn't ruin crypto for good for you I'd recommend sticking around the forums and trying to get a better understanding of how crypto works, how to keep your coins safe and what "businesses" to avoid.