This is a typical scheme on what many people should avoid - a clear example of "double your money scheme" which has

already crawled its way to crypto industry! Remember, "if its too good to be true" it is very probable that it is indeed a

scam! Let us all be vigilant about this and spread awareness within the community.

Well it happened in about a week to month ago.

The moment you hear guaranteed profit it's 99.9% scam with an error margin of 0.1%  


Well, Sam shouldn't send any more money first.
Of course, a visit to the police would be necessary since, to be sincere there is probably nothing you can do anymore on your own, but the chances of getting your (their) money back are slim to zero.

We also miss a lot of information on how this (I'm going to call it scam) unfolded.
How were they contacted in the first place, via an email, a website a telephone number, how did they pay that amount, a bank transfer cash in person to some rented office, etc etc etc.
The app thing is also confusing, is really a playstore app or some website..

It might just happen that they've left enough traces to be tracked by the police but again even if they get sentenced it doesn't mean your friends are getting their money back.

Still, I urge your friends to go to the police, If nobody reports them the scammers will try to trick more people and they will go unpunished.


LE:
I just saw the under a month time mentioned, if it was an international bank transfer call your bank, international bank settlements take up to 30 days in some cases (not the actual transfer in that person's account) so even if the thief has cashed out your bank can still stop and flag the transfer from being processed and maybe you have a chance, who knows.

By the looks of it and with the explanation it is surely a scam, he shouldn't send them anymore money regardless if they should him something that it doubled or whatever. It is just an application for God sake and anyone can create an app just to convince because they are legit when in fact it's a scam. Scammers now are getting smarter as the days pass and they will do everything just to rip people off.
With scam at large now, he should have researched more about the person or ask them everything before investing, how can he invest on something that he isn't sure about and he didn't even know the name of the app, i'm sorry but it's just absurd. Well, his a newbie we can't blame him but it's your money make sure to invest it on something worthy and not just to someone who promised big profits but later turned to be a scam.

 In that case, it's a certainty they've been defrauded.

Yup, definitely sounds like a scam. Whenever you are promised large profits instead of being presented with a clear business plan that would lead to said large profits, it is best not to give away your money. Definitely not if you don't know what you are investing in, and if 'Bob' and 'Sam' know nothing about BTC and crypto — anyone could tell them anything. I don't think that there is much that they can do right now in terms of getting the money back. But, they should definitely report this to the police or some scam-related authorities. They can tell them more about their current options and how to proceed.

That is definitely a scam,  Sam can file a complaint to the authority regarding the said scheme.  The thing that he cannot withdraw his profit is shouting that the company he invest in is a scam, and the huge profit promised in return of Sam's investment is another huge red flag.  There are also lots of those lurking here in the Philippines and many people fall victim to it.  One of them is my friend that invest more than $40k in total after their initial investment of $1k.  I tried to tell them that they should be careful and research more before investing on that company but, greed took over them and put in more money.  Same scheme, when I asked my friend they told me that they already have huge profit but they are not allowed to withdraw it for about a year.

Back in memory lane while trying to hold my hand somewhere on crypto business and stuffs. I have found myself in such site but now I realize they are scam  but I didn't send any money there but I was investing my time to build some coins I couldn't withdraw while being asked to double it by transferring to withdraw later.

Yup, that is a scam for short

In the name of investment, if you are making a profit in a short time, that will be too suspicious because we know the investment itself needs time before we can make a profit. The short time we can get the profit will be at 1 day, 1 week, or 1 month but if the return is too big to imagine, then that will end with the scam.