Lost money in private Crypto platform

Hi Everyone, Short story :- I think I got scammed (lost around 7200$) from a private crypto trading platform (app.bitantok.com). My funds are locked with them. They are asking me to pay additional money as taxes to withdraw funds from my account wallet. Has anyone ever came across this platform ? Now, should I simply take it as a lesson, forget all this and move to other important things in life ? (Or) Seriously talk to some attorney and start some legal proceedings ? How much will it cost me ? What are the pros/cons of this approach ? Can I ever get my Money back ? The company address (They told me when asked. Not sure if its genuine) World Wide Plaza Residence, 350 W 50th St, New York, NY 10019 Long story :- I came across one private BTC investment platform that publishes short term investment plans in a WhatsApp group and encourages people to buy that and make money. This is similar to Options trading, but here the product is Bitcoin. And the contracts are all short term of 2 min, 5 mins and 10 mins. These contracts will be there in app.bitantok.com Process :- 1. They share a link with referral code to register on the platform. 2. Then eVerify the identity 3. Add our personal BTC address to the withdrawal wallet and assign password for the same. 4. Now every day, they publish some short term option contracts of BTC on the platform at certain times in a WhatsApp group and people in the group purchase it as suggested. They either win or loose depending upon the BTC market graph going up or down. Some sample plans they suggest are listed below :- BITANTOK💯💵🌹 Buy. BTC/USDT Buy: Open Long Duration: 5 minutes Quantity 300 USDT 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 ⚠️⚠️ ⚠️ In case of loss, please buy with round robin. 300-700 - 2100 (Please complete this trade order within 3 minutes! This trading plan is only available for BITANTOK) 5. People in the group invest different volume of money as per their wish and keep posting screenshots of either the profits or loss. 6. This way every day they suggest some plans upto 5 per day. At the end of each day, they send a message saying below Congratulations to all trading users in the group for their great income. Today's trading is over and will continue tomorrow! If you want to get more trading plans and make more money, please contact me and join 1V1 professional coaching. 7. So, people who are interested in making more money, reach out to the group moderator to know about this 1v1 program and he replies saying below 1V1 Application The remaining quotas for 1V1 individual transactions are as follows. Quota ①. The principal amount is $2,000 and the minimum return is 80%. Upon completion, the analyst will be charged 20% commission Quota ②. The principal amount is $3,000 with a minimum return of 90%. Upon completion, the analyst will be charged 20% commission. Quota ③. Principal amount of $5,000 with a minimum return of 90% Analyst will be charged 20% commission upon completion Quota ④. Principal amount of $10,000 with a minimum return of 110% Analyst will be charged 15% commission upon completion If there is a loss in the analyst program, the Group will pay 90% of the above amount. 8. I also wanted to join this 2000 threshold principal of 1v1 plan and before that I made sure the following things from my end 1. Spoke in WhatsApp chat personally with around 4-5 people randomly in the group and asked if its safe or not (There are around 100+ people in the group) 2. Started investing as per the WhatsApp group plans suggested daily in group in minimal amounts of 100-150$ per trade and made some 200-300$ and was able to withdraw as well back to my coinbase personal wallet. 3. So I verified the complete end to end transaction of depositing money, participating in trade and withdrawng profits from my wallet in the platform. 9. On the day of 1v1 trade session, I had deposited 2000 in my account and I started chatting with the analyst. He told me that, at the time slot where the 1v1 session is planned for me, the signals are very good and provoked me saying invest more deposit money, so that he could help in getting more profits for me. I understood that his intention is to get more commission and at the same time, I dint want to invest more money on this stranger platform, so I said get me more profits, so that I can give me 30% commission instead of fixed 20%. Then Analyst said, its against the policy of the company, but he is okay to do that provided I maintain this as confidential personal agreement between us. I thought its a win-win situation because I can get more profits and he can get more commission as well. 10. After the 1v1 session started, he started texting me different short term Crypto plans and I used to purchase them as and when he posted in fraction of seconds. Usually I think he gives only 4-5 plans and ensures candidates get only unto 100% returns, in my case, he gave around 13 rounds of plans and I got around 600% profits. To be precise, as I invested 2000 in my account, he made sure I got around 12000 profit. 11. After the end of session, he said lets meet tomorrow and he is done for that day. If he stays more time in office, he can get caught which is not safe for him. 12. The next day, I started to withdraw from my wallet and I see that its failing. When asked the group moderator about the same, he said I need to pay the 20% commission upfront to the platform and then only I could withdraw my funds in wallet. I was slightly upset because I thought I could withdraw first and then pay the commission. 13. After paying that, the moderator acknowledged the platform system received the commission. But also said, he needs acknowledgement from Analyst that the platform received it. When asked to the analyst, he said, pay me my 10% extra commission, so that he can also acknowledge the same. Again I felt sad, but since I know that I can withdraw my funds after paying, I again paid him his promised 10%. 14. Now both moderator and analyst acknowledged the commission paid and said wait for the finance department to audit and review the same. Then only I can withdraw the funds. 15. I wait for couple of hours still I was not able to withdraw. When asked the moderator about the same, he said its unusual that its becoming late and might be some problem with my 1v1 trade session. Usually the finance department review should complete in 3 hours max. 16. So, I waited for one whole day and the very next day morning, the moderator says, the finance department found unusual activity in your account, saying I got abnormal profits in short span of 1 day time and legal/finance department wants to have a detailed investigation on the chat logs of me and the analyst. 17. The analyst said that he will try his best to convince them that he only did normal 1v1 session and the candidate only did some extra trades on his own and got more profits. When he was called for investigation, he tried to convince them, but then he could not. So, the legal department scanned through this WhatsApp chat logs and found the personal agreement we both made. 18. The moderator then told me that the analyst’s phone and laptop was seized by the company and doing investigation and my funds are locked till further inspection. By the end of the next day, they summarized saying that analyst will have a 50% pay cut and then I will have 15% penalty on my profits received. 19. I was ok to pay that 15%. But then now also, they said I need to pay it upfront and then only unlock my wallet for withdraw. I paid it again assuming I can get my Money once I pay it. 20. After paying that penalty amount, they said my account can be unlocked. But again the customer service folks texted me saying, I need to pay 15% of capital gains tax upfront to the platform, then only I can withdraw my funds. Then i started coming to my senses and realized that this is all might be fake and I stopped paying further fees/taxes to them. I already spent around 7200 till that point of time, assuming I can withdraw my 14,000 from my account wallet. So, I was reluctant to pay anymore. 21. The moderator says its obvious that anyone needs to pay taxes on capital gains and asking me to pay it and trust the whole process. But I was like deduct it from my wallet or I can’t pay anymore. 22. Surprisingly the WhatsApp group members who I was chatting since few days were also saying the same thing to pay taxes and withdraw and claiming that they also did the same multiple times. Then I started doubting the WhatsApp group members also, that how come everybody is talking in terms of the company only. They were always chatting with me on text messages, but no one amongst them is ready to have a call with them. Inspite of my multiple requests, they denied for calls saying they dont want to have calls with unknown people met on the internet. But they keep replying to all my messages. Then I realized I am super doomed and got scammed. 23. Now, when I ask the moderator and customer service people that I have trust issues with the platform and I can’t pay and I also said that I will bring some attorney and file a legal case against them for not unlocking my account. They were like they are happy and welcome any legal proceedings against them as they are all genuine. #misc