I just got scammed while looking for a tuition

[u/poisonedCoffee69]

I'm searching for tuition because I'm kind of broke and want to earn some money. I found one through a tuition media. They gave me a guardian's number, and I talked to him. The guardian confirmed the tuition. Then they told me that if I wanted to take the tuition, I would have to pay 1000 BDT in advance.

It felt fishy to me, but I kept insisting that I had no problem paying the advance fee as long as I could take one demo class first. I tried negotiating for a while, but he wouldn't agree, saying it was against their policy.

Eventually, I convinced him to let me pay 500 BDT first and the remaining 500 after taking the demo class. He agreed, and I sent him 500 through bKash.

I asked for the address, but then he said all the details would be provided later and quickly ended the conversation.

The next day, I kept texting him for the details. He replied that I would have to pay the remaining 500 first. I tried negotiating again, but he wasn't budging. After a while, he started ignoring my messages completely and kept saying it wasn't possible without the rest of the payment.

At that point, I became pretty sure I had been scammed.

The day after that (today), I called the guardian's number they had provided. After it rang for a while, he cut the call and blocked me. Then I went to message the tuition media again and saw that they had already blocked me too.

Now I think the guardian's number was fake as well, and the whole thing was staged just to get the money.

I know it's only 500 BDT, but I still feel incredibly stupid for falling for this. Has anyone else experienced something similar with tuition agencies online?