How Fake Crypto Platforms Steal Clients' Money

The demand for cryptocurrency exchanges is high, and their regulation is very crude and fragmented. Under these conditions, fake platforms created solely to lure money are multiplying.

The problem is systemic, and until clear financial regulation of the cryptocurrency sphere is established, it is unlikely to be resolved. It is easy to distinguish decent brokers from black ones by the presence and authenticity of a license from a state regulator. However, such techniques do not work with crypto exchanges, so everything is more complicated.

To analyze how such crypto scammers work and how not to get caught by them most clearly through examples. Therefore, we invite you to find out exactly how the gang of scammers is operating, which right now is flooding the network with its cloned projects.

What Fake Cryptocurrency Exchanges Offer Their Clients

All major transactions with decentralized digital currencies. Fraudsters are interested in the widest possible coverage of the target audience, so they generously promise everything at once:

• storage wallet,
• exchanger, including P2P systems,
• trading,
• investment site.

Each opportunity is lavishly praised, often going too far and thus betraying the typical handwriting of scammers. For example, a couple of lines of the slogan on the main page says that in front of us at the same time:

• the world's most secure trading platform,
• the fastest growing crypto exchange, and global,
• the lowest commissions on everything.

The unique, the exclusive and the best, of course, exists. However, if some dubious company screams about this, it definitely smells like scammers, and in very bad taste. In a healthy version, the company would put a footnote, according to which credible ratings and studies, it gained the right to call itself the very best in some aspect. While, for example, the wynk.finance exchange preferred to do without any justification.

Signs of fraud in a crypto platform

Unsupported cries about “we have everything the most” are already a very bad sign, but the matter is not limited to them.

Checking official data due to the fact that cryptocurrencies are in the gray zone will not help much. But checking the experience will not be superfluous for any project.

Crypto exchanges so far rarely have company registration certificates that would record both the year and even the exact date of foundation. However, there are other ways, including indirect messages from the crypto exchanges themselves. For example, the same Wynk Finance, without having an “About the company” section, indicates that its Terms of Service were updated on May 19, 2021. Therefore, the company itself was founded even earlier. The Terms and Conditions also state that the site is operated by a certain CRYPTO ARBY TRADE LIMITED, however, it will be possible to verify the existence of such a company only after clarifying the country of its jurisdiction. There are no contacts on the website of the crypto exchange, as well as documents. Therefore, it is not necessary to count on the official status. But the real experience is not going anywhere.

We find out that the wynk.finance domain name was registered on December 16, 2021. And the filling of the site was completed by November 17, 2022. Be that as it may, updating the client agreement six months before the launch of the crypto exchange website is a very dubious matter. This is plus one fact in the treasury of bad signs. We recommend that you check the age of the domains of all interested crypto exchanges in this way.

By the way, what about the content of the Terms of Service text itself? Finding it was not too easy: the link to the document in the footer of the site is indicated, but does not work. The only working footnote was found at the end of the registration form, where they had already carefully checked the box for agreeing to the Terms and Conditions, but at least they did not block the opportunity to open the document in a new tab for the most persistent and get acquainted.

It is very important to read the client documents of the interested company. If it is trustworthy, all the nuances and subtle places will be clear. If the document was compiled by scammers, they will give themselves away in it one way or another. The presence of phrases about the possibility of changing the terms of the agreement without informing customers will not surprise anyone. But point 7.3. a true gem among empty and useless paragraphs and a sudden example of the crystal honesty of the administration. Shown in the screenshot.

Point 3 of the seventh paragraph states that this service should not be considered a cryptocurrency exchange. This is actually pure simulation and gaming resource. Which has no connection with genuine financial markets and cryptocurrency exchange platforms. Moreover, this sensational paragraph, such a coming-out of scammers, was bashfully pushed into the very depths of a long text, surrounded by meaningless paragraphs. So it seems to be there, but it is placed in such a way that you can still get to the bottom of it. That is, the scammers included an honest message, but masked it as much as possible.

Why they hid it is just clear - so as not to scare off potential customers to whom all the other content of the site promises real services. Why was this item even included?

Probably, in this way, crypto scammers seek to insure themselves. Of course, they launch exclusively anonymous projects and try to hide. However, they do not exclude the risk that sooner or later they will have to explain themselves to law enforcement officers, and possibly even stand trial. In this case, they can demonstrate a client agreement, which contains a clause about simulation. And the clients who registered and thereby agreed to the terms, it seems like they themselves are to blame for signing an agreement to play on the simulator without reading it.

A series of cloned crypto exchanges

There are a lot of sites similar as two drops of water on the net. All have the same main and other pages. As well as identical client agreements with an enchanting clause about the simulator. Fraudsters are churning out clones, too lazy to change the logos of their one-day scammers. So the only difference is the names, which are the same as the domain name and are written in the same color and font. Occasionally, only the name of the alleged parent company is replaced in the same contracts: Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform, CRYPTO ARBY TRADE, and others with the root “crypto”. Fraudsters use two main numbers to register sites: +1.9854014545 and +1.6613102107. And choose the minimum possible payment period of 1 year. It seems that the creators of this series of clones would have been satisfied with a much smaller one, but no one but their kind wants to mess around with domains for a couple of months.

"Broker Tribunal" has so far counted more than 120 clone sites. Here is a list of them. However, judging by the speed and fertility of the scammers, they are not going to slow down their pipeline and will launch many new fake crypto exchanges based on the same templates. We will add new ones as we find them.

bank-bit-coin.com, biteverex.org, bitferto.com, bitgeer.com, bitkinzo.com, bitkort.com, bitloro.com, bitmaslo.com, bitmci.com, bitpays.online, bitroct.com, bitrouse. com, bitsalo.com, bitsired.com, bitsourse.com, bitsupl.com, bittruste.com, bitup.online, bitverno.com, bitwayd.com, bitzoliq.com, crypteka.com, cryptlir.com, cryptlur.com, cryptolir.com, cryptonexys.com, cryptopedix.com, cryptopend.com, cryptosryn.com, cryptoupix.com, cryptoowim.com, cryptuso.com, dex-trade.net, exbitcash.com, fincryptobuy.com, forex-btc. com, joolcrypto.com, lioncoin.pro, masitacoin.com, megabitex.com, mexcbit.com, mexcrypt.com, silkbits.com, slimeta.com, trademonrod.in.net, trustbase.pro, vogabit.com, wexcoinium. com, xcryptobit.com, albabit.com, bit-kort.com, bit2d.com, bitaxery.com, bitcok.online, bithap.site, bitlame.com, bitlandao.com, bitlerdo.com, bitlerium.com, bitlionex. com, bitlir.com, bitmeel.com, bitoder.com, bitsido.com, bitskry.com, bitslead.com, bitsourse.com, bitsoyo.com, bitverno.com, bitwerta.com, bitxchain.net, bitxdefi.org, bityels.com, bitzent.com, bitzolit.org, bixit.net, bx-crypto.com, citex.group, coinbaza.com, coinchank.com/trading, coincortex.com, coinix.pro, coinlib.fun, cryptaso. net, cryptnerd.net, cryptolaned.com, cryptonimex.com, cryptoslim.org, cryptoxnex.com, cryptoxnia.com, cryptozein.com, cryptume.org, cryptuso.com, cryptxbyte.com, dex-trade.net, deylybit. com, fincryptobuy.com, forex-btc.com, ladscon.online, luxcoinbit.com, masitacoin.com, neobitex.com, netxbit.com, pangolin.asia, tidex.group, tradecloud.space, trademonrod.in.net, trustbase.pro, uppdex.com, viaxbtc.com, vivabit.net, wexcoinbit.com, wexcoinium.com, wynk.finance.

Divorce scheme on cloned crypto exchanges

The scammers use software that has no connection to the markets and is a decent looking simulator. Such software is valuable for the training period, as training demos. Decent companies provide a demo mode to help a newbie get comfortable before moving on to working on a real one.

READ ALSO: How online scammers swindle schoolchildren for money

However, these cloned crypto exchanges give out a demo version and a simulator for real processes, and also accept real money from customers. What happens to them after the introduction?

Fraudsters appropriate all the invested funds and try to extract more from the victim. When attempting to request a withdrawal, clients are notified of their alleged transgressions against the anti-money laundering Know Your Customer policy. Moreover, documents alone are not enough to satisfy the site: you need to send more money under the plausible pretext of insurance or something like that. Of course, not a single normal site requires you to pay for the right to withdraw your own money from a client - only scammers do this. Crypto exchanges do not have time to acquire bad reviews: scammers close them in a matter of weeks, replacing them with dozens of similar sites.

Conclusion

It doesn’t matter if the fake crypto exchange has clones, or if its creators spent money on a unique appearance. It is much more important to recognize an unreliable project in a timely manner. Due to the lack of regulation, we recommend checking at least the age of the domain and current reviews about the exchange.