We Looked Into Anloko: Scam or Trustworthy? The Verdict

Recently, Anloko.com website popped up, promoting itself as a platform to store cryptocurrency and other assets safely. I managed to gather credible evidence that unmistakably confirms it is, actually, a deceptive platform.

Regardless of the promises of the most easy, dependable, and client-friendly service, Anloko.com does not offer any of them. All this is just a golden wrap around a clear scam, which steals your funds and never returns them. Any tales about gifts, sponsorship from celebrities etc are nowhere to be found as well.

Anloko Scam Overview

Originally, Anloko poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet platform with remarkably low commission fees. Another bright marketing point for this platform is backing from celebrities that are known in the crypto world. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Vitalii Buterin, Warren Buffet – the site claims having significant support from them. To make these claims look more realistic, frauds employ AI-generated videos where those celebrities advertise the fake crypto service as the best thing in the world. For obvious reasons, Elon Musk is the most common among them. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a blatant wrap around an obvious scam.

Anloko Scam

Initially, Anloko repeats the layout of numerous equivalent pages. There are quite a few examples, like Xemonex, Waretoken or Slsbit. They are totally indistinguishable in terms of visual elements, with minor discrepancies in the website header. Other specific elements, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are identical. Presumably, all these scam sites are led by a single team of scoundrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Anloko Scam Works?

Anloko is a part of a significant cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating vividly in 2023. Rascals who stand behind it use several website designs, which still share the similar overall layout. Another shared 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 sophisticated psychological tricks that make the user believe in the legitimacy of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To start the deceptive scheme, criminals establish and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They primarily aim at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign commences. Employing bots and sponsored advertisements (when possible), fraud actors increase the presence of their scam activities to potential victims. And as I said, crooks do not shy away using deepfake for creating videos with the mentioned celebrities that promote their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, deceivers claim the bonus for every user who joins the service immediately.

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

Users obtain an encouragement to enroll, drawn by the assurance of getting crypto benefits valued at hundreds of dollars, all for free. To augment the attractiveness of the offer, false suggestions of sponsorship by a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these assertions are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon clicking the ads, victims end up on a page filled with appealing offers. “Crypto starts with Anloko”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Anloko, “Start earning with Anloko – they look rather authoritative. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, scammers say that getting the pledged bonus requires registration. And as nothing suspicious happens at this point, unaware users happily keep on – especially as the reward appears to be right behind the corner.

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

Step 3: Data Gathering

This is the starting poing of the main fraud action. As I just mentioned, scammers bait folks into signing up for bonuses. And all the personal info needed for it – email, username, crypto wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Solely by gathering this info and selling it further into the Darknet, crooks can earn quite a penny. Nonetheless, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, you cannot use the claimed bonus right away. To make it at least usable for crypto purchases, the user should top up the account with the sum of a bonus. And this is what starts the final step of the scam.

Step 4: Requesting funds

It is obvious that any cryptocurrency purchases require you to have capital on your account. With Anloko, users are also compelled to top up to get the bonuses. And this is what creates most of the money flow to this fraudulent website. By topping up the account, users hope to get the pledged gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start participating on this website hoping to use all the transferred money and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the first obvious problems start to surface. When comparing the actual crypto wallet vs what the website says, you can observe that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to pull out the funds from your account, the scam is finally uncovered to the user.

Step 5: Escaping from Funds Withdrawal

Needless to say that swindlers have no intentions to give your money back. Though to make the denial look more legitimate, they’ve elaborated a whole bunch of reasons to decline the wireout request. Most of them repeat what Know Your Client requirements say, but for the Anloko.com they are here only to make the wireout impossible.

By asking for 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 multiple other checks you would desperately need to undergo before getting your money back. And every check will uncover 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 Anloko.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

• Absent company details. Anloko 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 Anloko 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 Anloko, 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 Anloko is a definite scam.

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Anloko 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.

• Secure Your Actions. Begin by promptly reporting the scam to appropriate local authorities tasked with handling financial fraud. Notify wallet providers and engage with social networks’ technical support teams. By taking these measures, you contribute to making the scammers’ operations significantly more difficult.
• Expand Awareness. Extend your efforts by sharing the scam information with your close friends. This action has a parallel effect to reporting to the authorities, as disseminating details about fraudulent crypto services reduces the potential victims they can deceive.
• Gather Evidence. Preserve comprehensive evidence by capturing screenshots and saving all pertinent data linked to the deceptive website. Collect the URL, screenshots of the main page, login interface, end-user license agreement (EULA), account top-up menu, and wallet addresses. These materials could prove invaluable for authorities in their pursuit of the scammers.
• Explore Refund Possibilities. While cryptocurrency payments generally fall outside the scope of refund policies within most banks, it’s worth investigating the potential for a refund in specific circumstances. Maintain optimism until you definitively confirm the loss.
• Convert Mistake into Wisdom. Transform your financial setback into a valuable learning experience. Treat your loss as an investment in understanding the tactics of crypto scam sites. Familiarize yourself with their key characteristics, how they lure individuals, and the grandiose promises they make. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll be well-equipped to recognize and avoid falling into future traps without incurring further losses.

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 scam, its masters may get in touch with you with particular files. Alternatively, they may suggest you to set up “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to simplify access to your crypto savings. As we previously figured out, these deceivers have no plan of returning your funds. So, what do these messages and browser plugins represent? You guessed – this is another side of the scam designed to throw you into willingly running harmful applications onto your system.

Both add-ons and attachments added to emails can serve as a shell for different malware. In this situation, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among all forms of malware. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the chance is always above zero. As noted, their ethics is of no concern, and their reputation is already seriously marred. They have no scruples to lose and intend to maximize profits.

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