I just read your story throughout this whole thread. It happens to a lot of people sadly. These scammers would do bulk email and phone sending to random people around the world and it is not just on crypto. This same "scam group" also happens outside crypto and it is more like involving local digital payments here in my country and they are also irreversible when you send money to someone.

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Source: Been seeing it a lot in public Facebook groups.

Appreciate the honesty, I have already reported to some authorities.  It just irks me that I searched for the company online and they had no bad info about them.  The scheme was pretty elaborate and the website is still up and running. 

You basically answered your own questions.
The only thing you could do is to reveal the scam trading group and/or the scam trading platform,so that other people won't get caught in this scam.
You are not a sucker,but you should've done a proper research before spending any coins on some shady,unknown trading platform.Many people got scammed like you,so you are not the only one.There's no point of having regrets.Just learn from your mistake and move on.
My advise to the newbies is to stick with the most popular and regulated crypto trading platforms.This is just common sense.
Joining some unregulated trading platform increases the risk of getting scammed.

aas you already mention on the title itself. We are talking about UNREGULATED exchange here which means the owner can run freely since there business is not registered officialy to let them tracked in case they scam you although authority can help you recover your funds if the money involved is huge and worthy to allocate resources just to recover it. If the amount is just small, Consider it already gone as this is the cons on using unregulated exchange at the first place. You should learn your lesson and move on.

There is something I m not getting cleared from you and somehow got confused with your post.
Questions you asking is already answered by you so wondering what you needed again.
If you sent BTC to scam wallet then you have to forget about it as it's missing which can never be seen or reversed to you again. Before dealing with any untrusted platform which you suspected to be scam is to make proper research about the platform or venture before going ahead with any deal or transactions.

Getting your funds refunded back to you may be an haculian task because we don't know the group you've joined that demanded a deposit of funds from you as stake, the most challenging thing is that whenever you fall in hand of those trading platform who apparently appears to be as a result of scam cant afford any refundment to it user. i will advise you to do away with all forms of groups on trading platforms that guarantees ROI because one ended on being scammed at the end, in cryptocurrency and bitcoin as a matter of fact, things were best done if you can do them all by yourself because that's the first security you could give to yourself.

It's unfortunate that you stumbled upon this kind of scenario given that you're still a newbie. It would have been hard to grasp thinking that you are just new, but already crossed path with scammers and schemes. However, it already happened and the least you can do is to do better next time.

If you badly want to trade, give a shot only to those reputable trading platforms. There are many reputable and trusted platforms that offer trading features. The only thing you have to do is to of course, research and do a background checking. The moment you want o enter something, it should be a protocol to check reviews about them first. In anything that there is money involved, you shouldn't put your trust easily because there are many people on the Internet that are greedy. Sadly, you encountered one. Not just once, but twice basing on your statement.

If a trading platform offers a too good to be true offer, doubt it already and trust your instincts. And if ever you got fooled the first time around, be more cautious the next time so it won't happen again. I've read similar scenarios as yours in which they got scammed and then afterwards, a person offered to recover what they lost in exchange of money. This is an old scheme already and you should be aware of that. Most of the scammers want to get the most out of their victims pocket. So, do not easily believe people offering you help.

Don’t be too hard on yourself mate, such things do happen especially when you’re still a newbie in the market.
It has happened to a lot of people here, you just have to learn from it and move on and nothing more.

And as for recovering the money you have lost, there is no way that you can recover it. Don’t pay people who claim that they can recover a lost crypto for you, cryptocurrency transactions can’t be reversed.

Any lost transaction is lost for good and can’t be got back in most cases.

Try to always do your research, avoid fake exchanges and make use of the most trusted platforms.

There are not a lot that you can do now, because that money is gone. What you can do is to help other people not to fall into the same trap.... Go to this site https://badbitcoin.org (hope they still accept new reports) and report them as scammers. (So if someone Google them, they will be directed to that site)

You can also start a scam accusation here ==> https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=83.0 with a detailed explanation and some screenshots of your discussions. <=== This will raise a second red flag, when people google them.

They most probably used a burner phone for the WhatsApp, but even burner phones leave "Location" information and also footprints to track them down. (Wifi connectivity Cellphone provider logs Purchase information for data...)

Good luck.... Hope you get to burn them to the ground!

Hmmm, so you didn't even read their regulations or requirements before you invested but you have to do some reading here before you posted, if you did go back to look at their rules, is it that you can never withdraw, or its a time period thing? or is the site just an outright scam site? There is always a lesson in everything and I guessed you have learned some. sorry if you are eventually unable to withdraw though and do more research before investing in any crypto even if it is through a trusted exchange.