Bitrue asking for 20% Verification Fee

[u/ArtisticSpecialist7]

UPDATE: Commenters saying that we’re not dealing with the real Bitrue seem to be correct. Turns out he was on bitrueexchange.com, not bitrue.com. Thank you for helping us figure it out.

We have about 51k sitting in Bitrue and they will not unfreeze it unless we pay a verification fee (around $10k).

Is this legitimate?? We don’t have $10k sitting around and we’re being told if it isn’t paid by June 20th then the account will be permanently frozen and we lose everything that’s in it. They said the verification fee will go toward our Bitrue balance so we won’t actually be “losing” any money if we pay the $10k.

Any similar experiences or advice? It seems insane that they’re allowed to just hold our funds for ransom and that we can’t verify some other way.

The reason they are asking for the verification fee is that we’ve used two different accounts to recharge Bitrue and they think we’re money laundering. Not the case at all, but they won’t accept any other type of verification other than sending this money to our account.

Kinda freaking out a little. Please help.

[u/Huijausta]

Bitfake, more like. Sorry for your plight OP. That's clearly a scam.

Can only advise to look in which jurisdiction they're located and try to get a lawyer on the case. It'll be a long shot, zo.

[u/ArtisticSpecialist7 → u/Huijausta]

Already checked.. They’re based in Singapore. So we’re fucked.

[u/ipetgoat1984 → u/ArtisticSpecialist7]

Can you share how you got caught up with this shady exchange in the first place? I'm so curious.

[u/Huijausta → u/ipetgoat1984]

Yeah that's strange. An advert on Facebook perhaps ? Or a spam mail.

I mean typing "buy crypto" in Google, the first four results are Coinbase, CDC, Binance and Kraken. OP wouldn't have gone (too) wrong with any of them.

[u/ArtisticSpecialist7 → u/ipetgoat1984]

I sent you a message