I got scammed

Disclaimer: I realized after the fact I should have done more research before attempting to purchase a watch. I will breakdown why I initially thought it was a legit seller in my story, but I do realize this i was ignorant for not seeing some signs and this was mostly my fault for believing it was legit. I will learn from this since it was my first time trying to buy a watch.

So to start off, a few months ago I got into the Moissanite watch community and started looking around at some instagram sellers and online sellers with websites. I found a page on instagram that goes by the name “VVS kings” or “VVS Moissanite kings” or something similar to that. They were based out of Nevada Arizona, had 31k followers and a blue check which could’ve been bought, and they have been around since 2021 on Ig. So I hit them up and asked about what watches they had available and send me a chart with some AP’s and Rolex sky dwellers or presidentials for around 500-800 per watch depending on which one. And the person texting me was big on “Be payment ready!” And stupid shit like that which I was because I wanted to buy one. So I picked out a silver AP that was like 500-600 and gave them my shipping address email, number and info like that and he said “we have a deal to where the watch is half off so it ended up being 200-300 bucks including shipping which i thought was too good to be true and ended up being a scam. He also said if I pay with bitcoin it would be discounted for 50 bucks off so he sent me a bitcoin account to sen the 250 to and I sent it and sent him a screenshot with confirmation I paid and he said thank you. The next morning I asked if it was ready to be shipped and he said he was “getting it ready now” which I honestly didn’t believe and had a feeling then I was being scammed. So I hit him up that afternoon asking if it was ready or going to ship soon and asking for a shipping number or label and then I had been blocked by the account.

The things that made me think it was real was that it had an address which was a shopping plaza which didn’t exactly have a watch or jewelry store in the plaza but I chalked it up as nothing much which was dumb on my part. They had a highlight on their Ig for reviews with customers showing they “cashed out” and dumb shit probably flexing fake money, like stacks of cash wearing watches and chains and shit, and text messages from customers saying “thank you” and “I love this watch/chain” and also the fact they had been around since 2021 and had 31k followers for a Moissanite watch/jewelry “business” I didn’t realize till after the fact that bitcoin payments can’t be disputed or tracked or anything and the name for the bitcoin account I sent the money to was a bunch of random numbers and letters. I honestly don’t care I lost 250 bucks because that’s not a crippling amount of money it’s just the fact I wanted a watch and should have realized it was a scam and too good to be true so I will have to do more research before even attempting to buy another watch again. It sucks but that’s what happens when you don’t do your homework and I hope no one else gets got with this company.