Years ago when I wanted to join the Bitcoin trend, I went to a coin exchange square and opened an account. I found an account selling BTC with a nice exchange rate.
When the trading started, a timer counted down. 5 minutes. The other user asked me to use VISA or put money to his PayPal directly. I don't have credit cards so I opted for PayPal. I put $20 USD into his PayPal.
After the transaction, it came out like less than $5 USD worth of BTC.
I was gobsmacked and so angry about this whole situation. I tried to see if I can sell them on the exchange square, but the coins I owned was lower than their lower limit for selling BTC.
My impression: I was scammed.
I couldn't retrieve my lost coins nor do anything to the other user. This is how they really profit on the Bitcoin market, I thought.
This can be true even for other coins, not only BTC.
I had a look at the market of other coins, whether I could make a profit back by swapping into other cryptocurrencies. But no, the trading fees are higher than the BTC I owned.
These Bitcoins are now lurking around somewhere on the blockchain. Since I don't keep the seed phrase for the wallet anymore, I no longer have these Bitcoins.
I felt so bad to be scammed by this middleman when I bought crypto for the first time.
What to you think? Comments are welcome.
