Description

I deposited money onto the WINT platform - m.wintcoins.com between 8/30 and 9/25, in total $6,000.00. It seemed like a legit crypto exchange. I even tested it a few days after I deposited money by withdrawing money and that worked, so I thought it was a real one. I learned of it through an instagram ad, which hooked me up with a whatsapp group. In there, a "professor" would analyze the market and would post trade alerts, usually 1-2 per day. That part seemed all very scammy, but I couldn't figure out what the catch was, because they weren't asking for money, and the exchange seemed to work, and I could withdraw my money. So I was kind of cautious, but still proceeded. I eventually built up my account to around 10k, at which time it seemed like the whatsapp group really changed and they aggressively started pushing me to do 1 on 1 trading. I told them I just wanted to take it slow and learn, and they basically shifted to criticizing me then, and asking why I wasn't dedicated to make more money. At that point I really stopped any trading and just tried to pull my money out. That's when I ran into issues. The withdrawl wouldn't go through. I did the support link in the app and it went to their telegram. At first, they said that the account was under review and it would just take a while to approve it, but then it never went through. They eventually stopped responding. Then I contacted the "assistant" that worked with the professor and told her that my withdrawls wouldn't go through. That's when she tried to convince me that they work directly with the platform and that my account was suspicious and that I'd have to deposit 25% of my account to a special wallet, and that would immediately get transferred back to my regular account, and my withdrawal would go through. I didn't do this. I told her that this whole thing was a scam and that I wasn't going to give them any more of my money, and she really put on the pressure that this is my fault that I'm not cooperating with the platform to get my money out. At this point, the money is just sitting in the account, but can't be withdrawn and their support won't respond, and the whatsapp group assistant says that I can work through her to get it out, but I'm not going to do that, because I know for a fact that I'll lose any money I send to her.