Why Scammers Ask for Extra Deposits, Taxes, and Release Fees

The second-stage request that turns a small loss into a large one

You request a withdrawal from the trading account, and the screen does not move. Then the account manager writes back with something friendly and slightly apologetic: a tax has to be settled first, or a compliance deposit, or a small fee to release the balance. The wording is calm. The amount is usually framed as a fraction of what you are owed. That framing is the whole trick.

In practice, the withdrawal button is not a door. It is a tool the operator uses to keep you paying. The first request is often modest, because the goal at that stage is not the money itself but your agreement. Once you have paid one fee, the second one is easier to justify to yourself, and the third is easier still. The amounts tend to grow with each round, and the explanations get more technical: anti-money-laundering checks, a correspondent bank hold, a liquidity top-up before the position can be closed.

There is a pattern worth recognising. Legitimate platforms deduct applicable tax at the point of payout or report it to you for your own filing. They do not ask you to wire a separate payment to a private account, a crypto wallet, or a third-party "tax agent" before your own money can be returned. If the only way to reach your balance is to send more, the balance is not real.

If you are already at this stage, stop sending. Start collecting instead. Keep the full chat history, including voice notes and the account manager's profile details. Save every payment confirmation, bank statement line, card receipt, and wallet transaction hash. Screenshot the withdrawal page, the fee notice, and any document the platform sent you, even the ones that look official. Note the dates and the exact wording of each request, because a bank or card issuer will ask when the payment was made and what you were told it was for.

Those records matter later. A card dispute, a bank transfer recall, or a formal complaint all depend on showing that the payment was obtained under a false premise. The clearer the paper trail, the less room there is for the receiving side to argue that you simply changed your mind about an investment.

Related reading: how fake broker platforms build trust before the first deposit, and a plain comparison of dispute routes by payment method.