He Refused the “Release Fee” and Got 88% Back Instead

The single best decision a victim can make is to stop paying. This client did, called us the same day, and it changed the entire outcome.

The operator was Heptagon Investments ↗, a fake investment platform. A Calgary nurse had deposited 0.7 BTC (about CAD 44,000) over a month.

01 /What happened

When she tried to withdraw, Heptagon demanded an escalating sequence of fees — “tax clearance,” then an “anti-money-laundering deposit.” She paid none of them and contacted us within hours.

02 /The trace

Because nothing further left her wallet, we focused entirely on the real deposits, clustering them and following the consolidation to two separate exchange cash-out points.

03 /The outcome

Two full-provenance freeze requests landed while the funds still sat in the deposit addresses. After verification, 88% was returned — among our strongest results, driven purely by speed and her refusal to pay.