My name is Michael and I am writing this after going through one of the worst experiences in my life.

(Please note, the name has been changed at the author’s request. The grammar and spelling have been preserved exactly as written to reflect the author’s original voice and experience.)

It all started with a personal mentor who called himself Pavel Dimitrov from Slovakia. He spoke English well, no accent, and was calm, never pushing me but explaining things clearly about how the platform works, how to read analysis and open trades. He told me I was chosen for some special program only few get in. Sounded convincing, I admit.

I deposited a small amount at first. Everything showed up on the platform, my account was working and trades seemed profitable. I moved from Basic to Silver level and they said Gold was close then I would get better access to strategies. I transferred money through my online bank to some personal card on the platform. Only later did I find out the money was going to a bank in Kazakhstan or somewhere. I didn’t worry at the time……….

There was also a woman called Mary in the team. She was supposedly payment assistant, helping with instructions, sometimes calling to remind me that everything was monitored. after about two weeks my account showed almost 28,000 dollars, looking great.

Then I got a call from an answering machine claiming to be from transaction verification. No real person, just a recording. It asked some questions about broker name and deposit amount. I got confused and couldn’t answer properly. A few hours later I got an email saying my funds were frozen and to unlock them I had to pay a verification fee — 1950 dollars. This was a manual paid service.

From there it was a vicious circle: freeze — email — payment demand — promise of unlock — more checks. The platform changed, support stopped answering, the mentor disappeared and the account became unreliable. I knew it was bad.

I spent days on the internet scrolling through dozens of sites about chargebacks, how to get my money back, what scams were out there. I read forums and stories of others who got caught like me. I wrote to many platforms but got only generic replies or no reply at all. Only TraderHelpBook answered me with a real human response.

Thanks to their admin who replied to my email and explained how the scam works, the steps, and most importantly why I should not pay anything more. They said this is not a broker but a typical fake investment trap.

Now at least I stopped feeding them money but the shame and humiliation stay with me. I hope my story helps someone stop before it is too late.