Topic: Scam Victim in need of help! - page 2. (Read 399 times)

I'm sorry, but bitcoin transactions are irreversible, thus if you gave the scammer your private key then it is gone by now. As far as tracing the phone number, they could have been using a disposable SIM card, so probably it is also hard to trace or identify the person behind that phone number.

in what country do you live? I'm sorry if I'm being rude to you, I'm going to talk a little bit about how things work in my poor country.
In my country:

1 - Only the justice officer calls the person if the person is late in the trial, in the case of the judge sending an arrest warrant, or notice to appear in court the justice officer goes to the person's house to leave notification and asks the person sign the notification

2 - My country's police don't call anyone, they go to the person's house to leave the notification for the person to go to the police to provide clarification

Do you think the government would have time to call to alert you that you are being investigated? how would that person clean your alleged criminal record and how would you be sure that this unknown person would clean your alleged criminal record?

I think you should have talked to the people close to you for advice, you should never make decisions alone when faced with situations like these because we panic and make decisions without thinking


you should have already realized that it was a coup, the government through the courts notifies the person by means of a justice officer who arrives at your house informing you that there is a lawsuit against you and that will be judged on day X, only after the judged the Bank close your account if you are found guilty or the bank notifies you via SMS, email and phone call that your account has been closed for Z reasons and that you should go to the bank for more information.


I already went through something similar and at the time I almost had a heart attack, but I was calm for a few minutes and then responds to the scammer. after that i went through several similar situations and with the experience i got from the first case i already knew how to deal with this type of situations, but i always recommend looking for other people's opinions before responding to the scammer


the scammer got your $ 1000 and you have no way of recovering that money

But if you have a scammer's phone number you can go to the police for them to check the phone number belongs to who

I real police officer or government official would never tell you to do such thing.They will most likely issue some court order to block your bank accounts and directly visit your home to arrest you,instead of calling you on the phone,saying that they will arrest you.This is some really stupid and nasty scam and your Bitcoins are most likely gone forever,OP.
You should call the real police and give them the phone number of the scammer.
There's nothing else you could do.They might track the scammer using his phone number.

While I'm not 100% sure how the Bitcoin ATM you used works, after reading your explanation a few times, I think this is how it went:

1. You deposited $1000 in the Bitcoin ATM
2. The Bitcoin ATM then displayed a QR code of a wallet's private keys(you pretty much gave access to the money) for you to swipe to a wallet
3. You then took a picture of the QR code and sent it to the scammer, effectively giving him access to the wallet with the $1000 worth of bitcoin

If I got this right, unfortunately, your money is gone.

I don't use much QR code in transactions but whenever someone shows you a QR code, his bitcoin address is in it and it's a "request payment". So if you scan that and you pay the asking amount, the scammer will actually receive the bitcoins you paid.

Sorry to say and sorry for your loss but there's no way to retrieve the money because bitcoin transactions are irreversible. This typical scam is common and once you have received a call from a stranger telling you this and that, you have to validate that to the officials in your local. Informing you that you have a warrant arrest can't be done on the phone, they'll send you a letter to inform you in a formal manner.

My best guess is that you have either received a QR code for your phone to insert a Bitcoin address on some link or you have received a private key (paper wallet) from the ATM after the money has been inserted and the scammer sweeped your money as soon as you sent the picture to them. Is there a "Private Key" on that picture or do you not have it at all anymore? Do you have the receipt? (do not post it or send it anywhere, just asking for a confirmation)

If the scammer has redeemed your BTC, it's just gone. Best thing you can do is give the phone number and a copy of the chat logs, receipt or any other information you have to the police (or the FBI, maybe it's a case they're interested in).

Next time, be 1000x more careful and think about possible consequences of your actions. If the scammer told you even the SIN and told you to withdraw all your money and go deposit it in an ATM, chances are the scammer might even be a very bad actor planning to wait for you to arrive at the ATM with tons of money and do something much worse to you than inserting an address.

Some confusing details in your details should be explained so we can response you:
What bitcoin ATM did you use?
By deposit your money into the ATM, the machine should ask you to provide an address. What address did you use? Is it an address given to you by the one who called you? If so, then your money has gone and what Charles-Tim told you above is right.
Maybe you can use the phone number of the scammer and ask the legal authorities to investigate the case, but it's not sure that you will get your money back.

Do they send you bitcoin QR code or address to send to,? They would, because this is what you will use at the bitcoin atm for the payment, if you have sent the bitcoin to such address, that means your money/bitcoin has gone.

It is not possible, you need to have a bitcoin address you will send the bitcoin to. And if the address you send to is owned by you and you have not send to the scammer addresses, then you are still safe but I think you have sent the bitcoin to scammer bitcoin address.

Yes, if the bitcoin is in your wallet (not scammer wallet) check if the bitcoin atm is able to dispense cash, not all but there are some bitcoin atms that can dispense cash.

You can also trade the bitcoin for cash using exchanges, I like p2p exchnges for this, but be careful of scammers. I can suggest you localbitcoins.

The question is, while using the bitcoin atm, did you send the btc to the scammers by any bitcoin address or QR code given you? If yes, the money is gone.

It is one of the scam tricks, they can even use another tactics like telling you to buy giftcards and sending it to them, that is why some people will go to buy giftcards with panic not knowing all is a scam.

So yeah, I'm Gullible.

Got a call from someone claiming they're from the government telling me there's fraud, drug trafficking, and money laundering investigations under my name using my SIN. Told me there's a warrant for my arrest. I was told i needed to clear out my accounts as proof that they belong to me, then requested i deposit it into this bitcoin ATM machine to "Secure my funds" and then it will be sent back into my bank account once the issue was resolved. I should have known it was complete bullshit, and i knew deep down. But I didn't think, and in the heat of the moment, withdrew only $1k and I deposited the money into the bitcoin ATM.

BUT, and this is where i'm unsure and would like some expert advice from you guys, I don't think the scammer actually received my money.

The machine told me to take a picture of the screen once i deposited my money, and i'm going to assume there was some important information on it like a bitcoin address for the transaction? I clearly wasn't looking either, and just took a picture of the QR code and sent it to the scammer's phone number.

 SO, based on this, is the scammer able to receive my bitcoins without the bitcoin address?

Is there any possible way for me to retrieve the bitcoins without the address?

If so, is there a way to exchange my bitcoins back to normal currency?



Any information on this would be greatly appreciated!!