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I was scammed by a man from an online dating site, I lost everything but even in debt...

After he got my trust and started teaching me how to invest in Bitcoin. He sent me a fake platform link, I installed it without any doubt, then the nightmare started... First of all, I bought a small amount of Bitcoin in Binance and transferred it into USDT, later sent it to the fake platform address for making short or more contracts, all the profits I made on the platform were fake. He was encouraging me to put more deposits to get more stable profits, every time I bought USDT from the legal platform and sent it to his fake platform address, since then there was no way back, always have to put more and more deposits. In the end I wanted to take out my money, then started all kinds of taxes, fees...I was so frustrated but I still borrowed money from my friend, trying to get out of my money, but it was too late. I lost everything but even in debts... I admitted I was totally blind, all the money was sent to the scammers' addresses (ERC20 and TRC20).

How stupid I was, I'm really hopeless, desperate, every single minute blaming myself... I only have his phone number and lots of transferred addresses. Now I know it's an international scam group... Do I have any chance to get them back?

Thank you for all your precious time and your kind advice!

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    I would report the fraud to police, not expect money to be returned, try to move on with life.
    – RedGrittyBrick
    Jan 14, 2022 at 8:53
  • Thank you for your comments! I already contacted the local police. but really no chance at all ? I found some hackers on internet, they said they can get the money back, I don't know if I should give it a try or not :(
    – Mona
    Jan 14, 2022 at 15:52
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    99.999% of people who say they can get your money back will be people trying to trick you out of more money. It is almost certain you will just waste a lot more of your time and become more stressed and pressured by them.
    – RedGrittyBrick
    Jan 14, 2022 at 17:43
  • Thank you for your advice Mr.RedGrittyBrick! When hackers say they will not charge money upfront, they gave me a little bit of hope... but deep in my heart, I also feel hopeless ... Thanks again for your honest advice, wishing you all the best and stay healthy!
    – Mona
    Jan 14, 2022 at 20:20

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Unfortunately there is slim chance of you getting back anything. Like @RedGrittyBrick responded on your question, you need to go to the police report all of it with as much evidence as you have. I know from experience that this is not easy and you may need to relive all the stuff you have experienced. At least you can use this as a sort of closure, knowing you did everything in your power to get something back.

There is ways the police can prosecute this but most cases get dragged out forever and are never closed, because they do not have the capacity or lack the evidences to investigate all the cyber crimes and crypto can be notoriously hard to trace if somebody wants to make the money untraceable.

As i'am an it security workforce person, do not think you can get it back by hackers or other illegal means you may end up being scammed again or make everything way worse in committing crimes or at least helping criminals.

personal opinion

The only thing you will get from this is life lessons. 
- Do not trust People you do not know and can not meet.
- Do not invest what you don't have.  
- Always do your own research.
- If it's to good to be true, it probably is not good.
(i do realise in hindsight this is easy to say)

You may have issues trusting anybody in the future and you need to speak and process that with people you do trust. Get outside help if you need it.

Sorry to hear your story, it is one that happens to often, not only in crypto but everywhere scams are the plague of today.
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  • Thank you very much AnafiFlyer! I've contacted the local police... I will meet them at the end of next week. It's really sad to hear that you as an IT security workforce person also think it's hard to trace:( I still get some messages from so-called hackers asking for more details and my phone No. ... I will stop dreaming (get my money back) now. Thanks again for your personal opinions! I learned a very big lesson, it will affect the rest of my life, I should stop blaming myself and move on. All the best and stay healthy!
    – Mona
    Jan 16, 2022 at 10:46
  • Most important part here is exactly that you realise that you need to take your life into your own two hands now. You are not as stupid as you think you are and you should not blame yourself, there have been smart and stupid people falling for scams. If the scammer gets the right sort of situation (sometimes accidentally, sometimes on purpose or maliciously) which gets threw to you as a person and pushes the right button there is no one who is immune to this. People in there harts are trusting, scammers know this. Indeed, do not blame yourself. Just try not to make the same mistake again :-)
    – AnafiFlyer
    Jan 16, 2022 at 16:05
  • If you are into learning how people try to manipulate you, there is some good content over at Youtube (Traditional scams and more advanced ones: Kitboga, Scammer Payback, Jim Browning, Catfished ... Jim Browning was actually almost successfully scammed himself)
    – AnafiFlyer
    Jan 16, 2022 at 16:27
  • Thanks a lot AnafiFlyer! I will never ever repeat it again : ( I will check the Youtuber which you suggested. Thanks again! BTW, the link which the scammer sent to me was already reported by many people and reported on scamdoc website: scamdoc.com/whois?id=635621, I would kindly ask your professional opinion, do you think this info will be any of help for the police? Thank you!
    – Mona
    Jan 16, 2022 at 17:36
  • Hi Mona, I am mixed on whether they will trust some random website like scamdoc, you can tell them but if i were a cyber police investigator, i would conduct my own research from your first hand information (like mobile number, payment addresses, any other interesting info that you know for a fact.). I generally mistrust information i can only find once (single occurrence). On the other hand the more they know up front the more likely they can catch a scammer
    – AnafiFlyer
    Jan 16, 2022 at 20:44

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