Am I being scammed?

[warrior346@yahoo.com]

I have been dealing with an apparent nice guy on Insta. He initially posted ona mutual picture that if anyone responded to him in a particular way he would clear their debt for them. I agree, too good to believe.

For the hell of it, I decided to reply and he agreed to transfer the required funds to me via crypto. He and I have been in contact and I have transferred 2 amounts to him. Fortunately not overly high. I have received this latest communication from him and wanted to know if this was a genuine thing and I am ok to proceed or I should stop now, block his thieving and lying self and move on with my life.

“We are contacting you based on your pending  request of your total sum of $18000.
Your payment of $300 has been confirmed. We have to bring to your notice a policy that is of utmost priority should a withdrawal request be ensued.
The trading firm has sworn an oath with the United State Council to abide by the law of the government that every trusted investor will have to pay a tax fee of $900 which is 5% of the total withdrawal amount before the withdrawal process can be completed with your withdrawal code E09556 to pay the stipulated fee. Once the payment is done a slot will be available on where you can insert your wallet address on your platform. You have a maximum limit of seven(7) working days to make this payment.“

What are peoples thoughts here?  Genuine or genuine scam?

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[hosseinimr93]

This type of scam has been around for years. Any service or any person asking you to deposit money to be able to make a withdrawal is surely a scammer and there is no exception.
Don't waste more money.

[warrior346@yahoo.com]

I don’t doubt that.

Addendum to original post: he has shown me an ETH view only wallet with the money in it that he has promised and that because it is coming as a trustee or something from a business wallet account to a personal one as the reason why these fees are needed.

Even as I write this I can see how ridiculous it sounds but just wanted ti get someone’s opinion here

[Adbitco]

Oh No!
Now my question is what kind of investment are you trying to make and what is platform you want to make the investment, let them share with you then you can post it here for us to take a clearer view of it to know whether you can actually insert your wallet as they said. Then lastly why are too greedy this will result you losing lot of funds if you intend to gain $18,000 you didn't work for or suffer for, keep it in mind is absolutely pure scam they wanna scam you, no trading platform required you to make deposit before you could make withdrawal first. Block sure person and stay away from them or him.

[CoinEraser]

This all sounds like a scam. Why isn't the tax simply deducted from the payout amount? That would make sense, but if you have to transfer money yourself beforehand, it's a scam. I wouldn't put any money into it! You certainly don't get a payout, especially not if it's from an almost unknown person on the internet.  

[warrior346@yahoo.com]

I am using the apple trust wallet for these transfers.

Yeah I thought it was too good to be true. I am cutting off contact now.

Not sure where the large loss of funds is beside the small transfers I have done.

Out of curiosity what does it take to make a view only wallet accessible to a third party?

[hosseinimr93]

Addendum to original post: he has shown me an ETH view only wallet with the money in it that he has promised and that because it is coming as a trustee or something from a business wallet account to a personal one as the reason why these fees are needed.

Take note that anyone can easily create a watch-only wallet using others addresses and since a watch-only wallet doesn't have any private key, it's not possible to spend fund from that. This means that most probably the wallet they showed you didn't belong to them at all.

[DdmrDdmr]

<...>

Slightly altered version of the message you received, more aligned with the reality of things:

We are contacting you based on your pending request of your total sum of $18000.
Your payment of $300 has been confirmed - thanks for taking the bait buddy. We have to bring to your notice a policy to scam as much from you as possible before you pullback, but we’ll rephrase it in a more luring way.

The fake trading firm has sworn an oath to scam the hell out of you and anyone else who believes our ridiculous scheme. Every gullible investor will have to pay a scam fee of $xxx which is 5% of the total withdrawal amount you believe you’re going to get with your withdrawal code E09556. Once the payment is done, we’ll see if we can still milk the cow a bit more and harass you for yet another contribution to our wellbeing. You have a maximum limit of seven(7) working days to make this payment (please hurry, we need to go down to the whorehouse to celebrate and party all night long at your expense).

Their line of though is more or less along this line. The same type of scam is commonly carried out with different pretexts, but all bear a common backbone of putting money/crypto dangling in front of your eyes, asking for some transfer beforehand to cover this or that.

[Renampun]

...

What are peoples thoughts here?  Genuine or genuine scam?

the logic is why you have to send money if the money they are going to send is a large amount, it is not more real if the withdrawal money that you have to send is borne by the sender or you can cut the money you will withdraw for withdrawal fees.

don't respond to this, this is clearly a scam, and it often happens in my city and even I myself often get messages like this on my Whatsapp. there are many scammers nowadays who are masked as friendly and kind people. if you have sent money to him then just let it go!

[gantez]

You are lucky to ask here first before you make a foolish of yourself by sending your scammer your money and see him beating his chest to know how to scam in his circle of friends. If someone want to ask you to send money to access your withdraw money that is not proper or real, it is scam so you have to learn this. Anything looking too good, you have to suspect it and online business you need to understand you have no friend. Online is anonymous and don't trust.

[Upgrade00]

He and I have been in contact and I have transferred 2 amounts to him. Fortunately not overly high.

What was the purpose of the 2 transfers you made to him and through what means did you do that?

Am I being scammed?

Yes, you've been scammed already and the scammers are trying to see how much they can squeeze out of you before greed wears off and reality begins to set in.
First rule of being scammed;
"If you're asking whether or not something is a scan; 99.99% of the time, it is"

[nakamura12]

The question is why would that person require you to pay or send funds to his wallet?. Honestly, for many years in scamming people that those scanmers even find a way to scam people of their money either through a project like ICO which most of it are scam that's why it is no longer a trend for years. Most of the scam attempt is that you must pay/send money to a wallet address before you will get what you wanted and if it's not then they will explain their so called investment like you will earn x amount of BTC within 24 hours and to avail in that so called investment then you must deposit first. As you have said that you already sent funds to them then you should stop right now before you lose more of your money. It's likely a SCAM.

[Findingnemo]

This is one of the oldest scam technique has been in practice in crypto as well as on the digital world, first the user will ask you to transfer a small sum, and he will repeat same excuses which may convince you at some point and if the streak grows for a while you will lose a huge sum, even some celebrities fall for this technique so don't beleive in things which looks too good to be true.

[Stalker22]

~
Even as I write this I can see how ridiculous it sounds but just wanted ti get someone’s opinion here

Good! This experience should help you avoid similar scams in the future. Do not let this happen again.
A side note: people who are trying to get money from you almost always seem nice at the start.

Out of curiosity what does it take to make a view only wallet accessible to a third party?

What are you referring to exactly? Blockchain is public and open to anyone. There's nothing stopping you from making a wallet that others can see, except for the fact that it's not your wallet (you can't spend funds from it) if you don't have the private key. For example, I can show you Binance's wallet (probably the largest cryptocurrency exchange), but that does not mean I have access to the billions of dollars worth of money there.

[Obari]

This is a real typical scam and you ought run dearly even without been told.
No firm will ever ask you to make any payments to receive any form of money or grant and this people will keep milking you to the last of your penny and you're also very fortunate to be here on time and you always have to be very conscious of people you meet online and you should also know that everyone is a suspect and we should always treat every matter regarding money as a very vital issues.

I am using the apple trust wallet for these transfers.

Yeah I thought it was too good to be true. I am cutting off contact now.

Not sure where the large loss of funds is beside the small transfers I have done.

 of curiosity what does it take to make a view only wallet accessible to a third party?

There is no major loss awaiting you outside the $300 you've lost already and if there is anyway you can avoid the use of that wallet totally at least it will be better and safer for you

[Issa56]

I have been dealing with an apparent nice guy on Insta. He initially posted ona mutual picture that if anyone responded to him in a particular way he would clear their debt for them. I agree, too good to believe.

Do you think anybody will give you free money just because you responded to the picture he posted, I think most people that are being scammed are the once that are looking for free money on the internet.

For the hell of it, I decided to reply and he agreed to transfer the required funds to me via crypto. He and I have been in contact and I have transferred 2 amounts to him. Fortunately not overly high. I have received this latest communication from him and wanted to know if this was a genuine thing and I am ok to proceed or I should stop now, block his thieving and lying self and move on with my life.

I'm sorry for your loss, I believe you have been scammed, it's just better you block the scammer to avoid further damages. As the scammer requested for the first payment and you paid, he will definitely give more excuses and request for more money, the more you keep sending the money, he will keep on increasing amount he will be requesting for and he will be giving excuses, so just block the scammer and accept your faith, I know how painful it is to be scammed, but this will serve as a lesson to you and everyone else reading this thread not to trust anybody you meet on social media, and you should know their is no free way to make money.

[Ultegra134]

I am using the apple trust wallet for these transfers.

Yeah I thought it was too good to be true. I am cutting off contact now.

Not sure where the large loss of funds is beside the small transfers I have done.

Out of curiosity what does it take to make a view only wallet accessible to a third party?

I haven't seen such a scam before, possibly due to regional differences, but I've had similar ones. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. No easy money can be made. However, from your way of writing, you're implying that you've transferred $300; did I understand correctly? If so, why? Always trust your instincts; if it sounded fishy, why would you send money and then proceed to ask questions here? I don't mean to offend you, but $300 is still a pretty decent sum to lose to a scammer. I'd be furious.

Anyway, in such cases, this forum and Reddit can be incredible sources to seek information.

[SOKO-DEKE]

In my opinion, this kind of tactic fraud is nothing new; it is widespread and has been used to defraud many people in the past. Therefore, you must exercise extreme caution when dealing with anyone you encounter online who brings up financial matters. The best course of action is to avoid messages from strangers, set realistic goals for how quickly you want to get rich, and limit your online wealth-seeking. Otherwise, you will continue to be falling under their hands, because other fresh tactics, which are constantly being developed. But I believe you learned from you lesson, so it will be difficult for to happen again once you are eager to rich easily online.

[kamvreto]

There will be no strangers suddenly contacting you asking for help to make a withdrawal. They are clearly scammers, no need to do detailed research, scammers will only target foreigners like you.
Scammers like this usually use phishing websites or websites that are designed to carry out scenarios like what you are experiencing. But if you have made a payment of $ 300 and are still being asked again for a 5% tax payment of around $ 900 then it is clearly a fraud. Tax will not be billed to the user and it is a large amount. were you not suspicious at the start when making the first payment? no withdrawals will be made, you will only be the target of a scam.

[warrior346@yahoo.com]

To be honest I enjoy a good debate / argument and I was curious as to what tactics he would try to “ensnare” me and persuade me to still do this. (Note: I have absolutely no intention of proceeding here).

I even gave him a way that would work for no loss on either side and he still wouldn’t take me up on it lol.

I have just lived the expression, “ Fool me one shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.”  

Thanks all on here for stopping me from making a stupid mistake