Sometimes, in order for an investor to learn, they need to experience it themselves. You're one of them.

You invested the money that you really needed base on what you said, but the only thing that you can do now is to move on, move forward, and learn from the mistakes that you've done. Many here experienced the same things that you experienced OP. I know that many here fell to these type of scams, and there are some who fell into different types of scams. Getting scammed once is still a good thing because at least you will learn from it, and you will not fall again next time, but getting scammed twice or even thrice then there's a problem with you already, and maybe just stop investing, or rather in some safe assets like Bitcoin, or Stock Market.

Don't pay them anymore. Many here already said that it's a scam, and I agree with them. Now OP I hope you learned a lesson from this mistake, and don't ever, ever do it again.