#risk-mitigation-fee

My 'broker' is asking for a 'risk mitigation fee' to release my profits. Is this legit?

Hi everyone, I'm feeling really stupid right now. I got lured into this online trading thing, supposedly forex, by someone I met on Instagram. They introduced me to a platform, didn't seem too shady at first, everything looked official. I put in about £5,000 to start, then they convinced me to put in another £10,000 for 'better returns'. The dashboard showed my account growing, like, really fast, which made me excited but also a bit nervous. When I tried to withdraw a small amount last week, they said my account was flagged for 'unusual activity' because of the big profits. Now they're saying I need to pay a 'risk mitigation fee' of £3,500 before they can release any funds. They claim it's a 'standard regulatory requirement'. This feels totally off, but I'm desperate to get my money back. Has anyone heard of this before? Is this a new scam tactic or am I just being paranoid?