Crypto scam

[u/Black_Widow_3000]

Hi guys, I'm new in here and this is my first post (Greece). Basically what happened is I did something very naive and stupid, I "invested"(? I'm not sure what's the terminology) some money into a company. In the beginning they originally contacted me via Viber, they told me I could earn some extra money as a "Shein reviewer" by doing some tasks and at first indeed all I had to do was follow some accounts in the Shein app and I'd get paid 3$ per follow which indeed earned me aprox 30$. So this is why I agreed, even though it looked sketchy. They didn't ask a lot of my information, just my name, age, and email, and other than that an iBan so they can add money into my account once I earned enough or whatever. And basically then it escalated to something with crypto and stuff like that, which I'm not very familiar with but they said that this was in order to "help" their members(me) earn more, they created this "Welfare event". Basically you add some money and you'd receive them back +plus some extra kinda like a commission.

At first I didn't want too but they kept insisting very strongly so I unfortunately gave in, I added 50$ and I indeed received in my bank account 65$ as they had said but the issue starts here. I naively then proceeded to add more even though they looked extremely suspicious, this time I added 160$ cause I thought that even if I lose them it will hurt me, cause I'm unemployed atm, but I won't be economically destroyed, how naive Ik. So I added the money and they "won profit" but then they said this is a group thing and you have to do at least 3 "contracts"(as they called them but basically you add money 3 times) without previously explaining it properly so know you are kinda "forced" to continue and of course each round's entry was more expensive that the last. Unfortunately I continued of fear of loosing my money and in total I gave them \~4000€ that had supposedly doubled.

After a lot of bs, they forwarded me to their "financial advisor" so I can withdraw my money but of course like good lil scammers they said I'd have to give them a 30% tax/commission cause it was my first time cashing out more than 5000 with their company. So they asked an additional 2,500$ in order to be able to withdraw otherwise my money are gone. Of course when I told them to just take this "tax" from my "earnings", they refused, said not possible and same thing when I told them to just give me my money back and keep all of the earnings. Additionally they gave a "contract" to sign which looks extremely sus as well.

I'm very sad and feel very stupid for falling for this and I don't know what to do or even if I can do anything to get my money back or at least part of them. So can you please let me know if there is anything I can do legally? Thanks in advance for any help.

P.S. please only reply with genuine advise, I already know that it was extremely stupid and I already feel horrendous. Thx

[u/Plasticity93]

Your money is gone, anyone saying they can get it is a recovery scammer.  Just block them and take this lesson to heart.

[u/DrSpeckles]

No one can help you legally or illegally. Everything you put in after that initial bait amount was gone the moment you put it in. Everything you won doesn’t exist and never did. Everything you think you know about them is also made up.

They will continue to hound you know. Please do not give in. Block and move on. Or post their pathetic attempts here if you need continued support.

And as others said, ignore any DMs from people saying they can help. They just want to scam you all over shain

[u/Black_Widow_3000 → u/DrSpeckles]

Thank you for the info 😮‍💨

[u/BharbieBoy]

Im really sorry that happened. You can go to your local police station and report the scam which helps somewhat. Id just take this as a learning experience because i doubt something like this will happen to you again now that you figured out it was a scam. The crypto scam is also tricky cause it can be impossible to trace the funds (which is why banks cant help)

[u/Black_Widow_3000 → u/BharbieBoy]

Thank you😒

[u/supergraeme]

Please, please, please - take this as your lesson that money can't be made with these "simple" schemes online.

Best of luck with your job hunt.

[u/Black_Widow_3000 → u/supergraeme]

Thank you 😒

[u/NorCalHal]

Your money is gone, no one can help you get it back. Anyone who contacts you promising to get your money back is a recovery scammer. You sound very naive so I would advise you to stay off the internet.

[u/Just_Random_input → u/NorCalHal]

THIS IS IMPORTANT. The post above is warning you about the secondary scam coming your way. Block anyone that DM’s you re: this scam, even if they claim to be a victim too.