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.