Is ALTWEX Legit or Another Scam? The Truth Revealed

Recently, Altwex.com website appeared, promoting itself as a platform to store cryptocurrency and other assets safely. I managed to gather reliable proof that unmistakably confirms it is, actually, a fraudulent site.

Despite the promises of the most convenient, reliable, and customer-centric service, Altwex.com does not follow any of them. All this is just a golden wrap around a clear scam, which takes your money and data and never gives them back. Any tales about gifts, endorsement from celebrities etc are nowhere to be found as well.

ALTWEX Scam Overview

Originally, ALTWEX poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet service with exceptionally low commission fees. Another notable marketing point for this service is partnerships with celebrities that have relation to the crypto world. Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Vitalii Buterin, Jeff Bezos – the site claims having significant support from them. To make these claims look real, rascals employ deepfake videos where those celebrities promote the fake crypto service as the best thing in the world. For obvious reasons, Elon Musk is the most common choise for that. But, as I said in the introduction, all this is just a glaring wrap around an obvious scam.

ALTWEX Scam

To begin with, ALTWEX shares the layout of multiple equivalent online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Veznex, Tranzbix or Tradelly. They are completely undistinguishable in terms of graphic elements, with small discrepancies in the website header. Other details, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are identical. Most likely, all these scam online platforms are managed by the same team of scoundrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the ALTWEX Scam Works?

ALTWEX is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Swindlers who stand behind it use various website designs, which still share the identical overall layout. Another mutual element are the ways the scams like NAME are promoted, and the manner all this ends up to the victim of the scam. To reach peak efficiency, frauds apply complex psychological tricks that make the user believe in the authenticity of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To begin the deceptive scheme, criminals set up and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They mainly target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign starts. Employing bots and paid promotions (when possible), fraud actors intensify the exposure of their scam activities to possible victims. And as I said, fraudsters do not disdain using generative AI for creating videos with the mentioned celebrities that advertise their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, swindlers claim the bonus for every user who joins the service immediately.

Promotions of cryptoscams like ALTWEX in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users get a stimulus to enroll, attracted by the promise of obtaining cryptocurrency rewards valued at hundreds of dollars, all without cost. To augment the appeal of the offer, false claims of cooperation with a celebrity are added. As you may guess, these claims are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon following the ads, targets end up on a page filled with appealing offers. “Crypto starts with ALTWEX”, “Your crypto savings are secured with ALTWEX, “Start earning with ALTWEX – they look rather authoritative. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, fraudsters say that getting the promoted bonus requires registration. And as nothing questionable happens at this point, unexperienced users happily proceed – especially since the bonus appears to be right behind the corner.

At this point, it is possible to steer away from the scam without any losses. Before you register using your personal data, frauds will not be able to earn even a penny from your presence on the website.

Step 3: Data Gathering

This is where the main fraud action begins. As I just said, deceivers bait folks for registration with bonuses. And all the personal data needed for it – username, email, cryptocurrency wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Exclusively by gathering this data and selling it further into the Darknet, fraudsters can earn quite a penny. Nonetheless, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, you cannot use the promised bonus right away. To make at least cryptocurrency purchases on the platform with it, the user should top up the account with the sum of a bonus. At this point, the final stage of the scam kicks in.

Step 4: Requesting funds

It is obvious that any cryptocurrency purchases require you to have funds on your account. With ALTWEX, users are also forced to top up to claim the bonuses. And this is what creates most of the cash flow to this scam website. By topping up the account, users hope to get the committed gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start participating on this site hoping to use all the credited money and withdraw them.

This is where the first obvious problems start to surface. When keeping an eye on the real cryptocurrency wallet vs what the website says, you can spot that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to withdraw the capital from your account, the scam is finally uncovered to the user.

Step 5: Escaping from Funds Withdrawal

There’s no need to explain that fraudsters are naught on intentions to give your money back. Though to make the denial look more realistic, they’ve made up a whole pack of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Usually, they repeat what Know Your Client requirements say, but for the Altwex.com they are here exclusively to make the withdrawal impossible.

By requesting your personal data, frauds just stall hoping for you to understand that you’ve been scammed and stop contacting them. If you don’t – well, there are a dozen other checks you would desperately need to undergo before getting your money back. And every check will share more and more information, which – you guessed it right – will be then sold on the Darknet. Never reveal your real info to strangers!

Signs of Scam

I gathered several facts that point at the scammy nature of the Altwex.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

• Absent company details. ALTWEX does not provide any documentation about its ownership, location or registration. No legitimate contact details are given either. Moreover, it appears that the domain and all social network pages were registered quite recently.
• Fake sponsorship from a celebrity. Scams like ALTWEX like to pick a celebrity as a sponsor of this entire campaign. For obvious reasons, fraudsters generally choose Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mr. Beast, Mark Zuckerberg, and similar celebrities. They do not disdain claiming partnership with a company as well. Even though Coinbase, Binance or MetaMask never heard of ALTWEX, they do not care – this creates a halo of credibility.
• Potential Ponzi Scheme. The scam relies on a Ponzi-like referral system to spread reach through social media. In fact, only the first members will receive the payoff, at the cost of the money brought by other members.
• Hype without facts. Frauds can cheer up their victims from time to time, using claims about non-existent events. “We got contracts with Coinbase”, “Elon Musk mentioned us as the most prolific crypto project” – you could likely hear something like that. This is made to make people believe in their money return. This can be the sauce to make people top-up their accounts once again.
• Crypto-only incoming payments. Whether the user tries to top-up the account, hackers will only accept payments in crypto – no bank transfers or other payment methods. Such an approach completely hides the identity of the company and deprives you of the ability to ask for a refund.
• Claims are too good to be true. Let’s be sane and sober: even in crypto space, there are not many places where you can earn 50-100-200%. Being able to participate in all of them is nearly impossible, as well as it is impossible to insure or hedge all the risks. Even by that reason alone I can tell that the ALTWEX is a definite scam.

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with ALTWEX site and fell victim to that scam, there are still some steps to take. They will make further scam attempts harder, and also boost the knowledge about that scam among folks.

• Report the scam to authorities. Search for local authorities responsible for financial frauds, and also notify wallet providers and social networks via their tech support. It is essential to make the further operations of these scammers much harder.
• Tell your close friends. That step is similar to reporting to the authorities, and has similar effects. By posting info about scam crypto service, you decrease the pool of people they can fool.
• Get evidence. Screenshot or save all the information related to the website. URL, screenshot of a main page, login window, EULA, account top-up menu, wallet addresses – all these things may be useful for authorities to find the scammers.
• Check whether you can ask for a refund. As I’ve said above, crypto payments do not fall under refund policies in most banks. Nonetheless, in some circumstances, it is still possible. Never lose hope until you actually confirm it is gone.
• Make your mistake your lesson. Financial losses are always a reason for frustration, but let’s imagine it was a pay for scam revealing courses. Remember the key features of these crypto scam sites, the way they attract people and what they promise. In the future, you will easily recognize a trap of spending no money.

Scan your system for possible malware infections

Beware of cross scams! Scam actors can use your trust to make you download some stuff or interact with certain documents. It may be a trap that installs malware to your system. There are no moral barriers or limits for these scoundrels.

Throughout the course of the fraud, fraudsters may get in touch with you with specific documents. Alternatively, they may offer you to install “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to streamline access to your cryptocurrency funds. As we earlier figured out, these deceivers have no intention of restoring your capital. So, what can these messages and browser add-ons represent? You guessed it right – that is another side of the scam designed to entice you into deliberately installing malicious applications onto your system.

Both extensions and files included to email messages can act as a carrier for different malware. In this situation, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among all kinds of malware. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the chance is always greater than zero. As previously mentioned, their ethics is of little concern, and their dignity is already severely tarnished. They have no scruples to lose and intend to boost revenues.

Frequently asked questions