Scammed by Instagram User

[jerryjac]

The so called person approached me if i wanted to invest in bitcoins and get some return. I fell for it as bitcoins have been surging massively. Instagram profile :

https://www.instagram.com/steven.btc_trader/

He used this number to chat on whatsapp -+1 938-238-1153 on 11th February 2021 . Then he mentioned that i will have to open a wallet for storing bitcoins. So i opened up a account in Binance. To invest 1500$ and get good returns due to this surge. Then he told me to open an account in http://www.algofxtrade.com and transfer bitcoins to the portals website . He said to contact the admin of algofxtrade and tell that he is the account manager to manage the trading. After i deposited the BTC in the algofxtrade wallet initially with 450$. The website gets a pop up that i have to deposit 1300$ more to use the account. The account manager Steven however said that he is starting the automatic robot trading and it requires 3-4 days to run the cycle. Then i researched in google that there is a big scam of this going on. I then asked him to give his ID and prove his identity , i also email the admin of the company to give their contact numbers to call. The whatsapp number just went to a voice mail. The company said they stopped doing mobile calls. They complained that my attitude isnt right and will stop the trade. For which i said go ahead stop the trade and to proceed with withdrawal. Suddenly another pop up comes on the site saying that i need to send my ID for verification. I sent my national id  which they didnt want and asked for my passport or drivers license . I send them my drivers license photo and then they emailed that verification has permanently failed and that the name doesnt exactly match the name of the account which is false. They then said that i have to open another account put a small deposit and transfer the amount from the previous account into the new one. I clearly denied this and they were like this is the only way to get my money back . I am very frustrated with all this and quite embarrased that this happened to me.

This is the bitcoin address they used

1BAA8si18Z3qxd7avujsaBSRRcfb3d56Bo

Can anyone help to retrieve or catch these guys ?

[Lorence.xD]

You have to move this topic to the Scam Accusations board, you can see the move topic on the lower right of this thread and you will move it there, a lot of people can help you to some extent except getting that money back. I checked the Instagram account of the guy and I am definitely sure that it is a dummy account, what I mean by that is the account has the most generic kind of Instagram scammers, posting stuff about bitcoin, money, girls, cars, girls on cars, girls with money on cars and some poses, I think that this is not a real person, this account has been getting a lot of victims, checked the address and there was a 0.008 worths of bitcoin there, hopefully this person hasn't scammed a lot of people.

Can anyone help to retrieve or catch these guys ?

To address the elephant in the room, I have to say that when you gave it to this person then you will not be able to get it back.

[Porfirii]

There are a lot of cases lately, it seems that scammers are working non-stop with the latest surge of the cryptos: fake apps, phishing, or scamming directly asking for transactions.

I don't think that Instagram (nor Tik-Tok) are good channels to learn about crypto. On the other hand, crypto-twitter is much better, but there is still a shitload of crap there that may be perplexing for the newbie.

I am really sorry but as Lorence.xD stated, once you send the coins you can't get them back unless the recipient itself sends them back. It has been an expensive lesson (could've been more) but now at least you know that these channels are not appropriate: if you want to learn there is no better place that this forum, plus some extra books if you want to go advanced.

[jerryjac]

You have to move this topic to the Scam Accusations board, you can see the move topic on the lower right of this thread and you will move it there, a lot of people can help you to some extent except getting that money back. I checked the Instagram account of the guy and I am definitely sure that it is a dummy account, what I mean by that is the account has the most generic kind of Instagram scammers, posting stuff about bitcoin, money, girls, cars, girls on cars, girls with money on cars and some poses, I think that this is not a real person, this account has been getting a lot of victims, checked the address and there was a 0.008 worths of bitcoin there, hopefully this person hasn't scammed a lot of people.

Can anyone help to retrieve or catch these guys ?

To address the elephant in the room, I have to say that when you gave it to this person then you will not be able to get it back.

i have almost come to terms that i have lost the money. Out of that 0.008 , 0.045 is mine i believe. But i really want to catch these @!#$#$ even if i dont get my money back

[jerryjac]

There are a lot of cases lately, it seems that scammers are working non-stop with the latest surge of the cryptos: fake apps, phishing, or scamming directly asking for transactions.

I don't think that Instagram (nor Tik-Tok) are good channels to learn about crypto. On the other hand, crypto-twitter is much better, but there is still a shitload of crap there that may be perplexing for the newbie.

I am really sorry but as Lorence.xD stated, once you send the coins you can't get them back unless the recipient itself sends them back. It has been an expensive lesson (could've been more) but now at least you know that these channels are not appropriate: if you want to learn there is no better place that this forum, plus some extra books if you want to go advanced.

Since we have the visibility that he has 0.008 BTC in his wallet , is there no way that we can block this and not let him do any transactions ?

[Porfirii]

There is no way to block an account that you don't have the keys from.

As far as I know, you can file a Bitcoin Abuse Report in this website https://www.bitcoinabuse.com/reports/create so other members can find the address and see what happened. It has no other legal consequences, I'm afraid, and I don't think that most of the potential victims will dig into it before falling into the trap, but who knows, maybe this service is popular some day and we get used to use it.

[janggernaut]

The so called person approached me if i wanted to invest in bitcoins and get some return. I fell for it as bitcoins have been surging massively.

This is when the scam started. How on earth you could believe and trust with someone stranger who you didn't know before? Even a experienced trader won't ask people's money to invest on him (if they can make money, they can even using their own money and become rich from that).

Unfortunately no one can help you or get your money back (even you don't care about it). You can only give warning to other people to not fell into this scam

[jerryjac]

The so called person approached me if i wanted to invest in bitcoins and get some return. I fell for it as bitcoins have been surging massively.

This is when the scam started. How on earth you could believe and trust with someone stranger who you didn't know before? Even a experienced trader won't ask people's money to invest on him (if they can make money, they can even using their own money and become rich from that).

Unfortunately no one can help you or get your money back (even you don't care about it). You can only give warning to other people to not fell into this scam

Oh well , its happened . But i am sure there is a way to screw this guy's happiness.

[btcltcdigger]

Oh this is a classic "fake" exchange/investment scam. These things pop up like mushrooms after rain.
And the MO is always the same, once you deposit, you can never get the funds back.

Tough luck buddy

[rat03gopoh]

~snip
1BAA8si18Z3qxd7avujsaBSRRcfb3d56Bo

This address only has 1 next destination which is 1NDyJtNTjmwk5xPNhjgAMu4HDHigtobu1s, this is Binance's central wallet

If you would like to check for yourself, our wallet addresses are: 1NDyJtNTjmwk5xPNhjgAMu4HDHigtobu1s

I believe the scammer's BTC address is his BTC deposit address on Binance.
If this scammer has done KYC, then there is still hope that you could screw his happiness. Begin to contact Binance support if they would be willing to do anything about this scammer.

[hulla]

The so called person approached me if i wanted to invest in bitcoins and get some return. I fell for it as bitcoins have been surging massively.

If you want to make an accusation next time you should add some evidence (an example screenshot of the message between you and the exchange ) to prove the accusation is true.
In crypto investment, you are not to trust a bit of strange advice especially when it through social media and if you're going to follow his advice, it shouldn't be without doing proper research.

Instagram profile :

https://www.instagram.com/steven.btc_trader/

I did some search about the profile and it leads to this German Facebook user that offers an online class in dropshipping etc.
The site is also list on this Russian site as a scam. As, earlier the address belong to exchange (possible Binance) but you can also report the issue to their support.

[jerryjac]

Thanks for all the replies. Let me check with Binance

[qqJoja]

Hello, sir

Firstly I'm sorry about your story. Lucky at least you didn't fall for their fake promises and escape losing more funds

Could you please tell how exactly did you made the deposit, it was from your Binance account or you used some different wallets of yours?

also I wonder what was the Binance support reply on your case?

thanks in advance

[janggernaut]

Hello, sir

Firstly I'm sorry about your story. Lucky at least you didn't fall for their fake promises and escape losing more funds

Could you please tell how exactly did you made the deposit, it was from your Binance account or you used some different wallets of yours?

also I wonder what was the Binance support reply on your case?

thanks in advance

OP has opened an account on binance, then he deposited his money on there. After that, he being told to open an account on algofxtrade and he can deposit from his binance account to algofxtrade's account. If you understand it correctly, it has nothing to do with binance, so it's useless to ask binance support as it wasn't their fault.

[qqJoja]

OP has opened an account on binance, then he deposited his money on there. After that, he being told to open an account on algofxtrade and he can deposit from his binance account to algofxtrade's account. If you understand it correctly, it has nothing to do with binance, so it's useless to ask binance support as it wasn't their fault.

Yes, I understand exactly how you describe!
The main question is what if Binance really could have done own investigation and at least freeze frond’s funds regardless jerryjac can’t receive his money back
Also op originally didn’t mention anything he send money from Binance, that’s why I want to double check if I understand correctly

P.s Can I call you Urneo cozz you are juggernaut:)?