We Looked Into Bitsowex: Scam or Trustworthy? The Verdict

Recently, Bitsowex.com website surfaced, promoting itself as a place to keep cryptocurrency and other assets securely. I managed to gather reliable supporting information that unmistakably reveals it is, in truth, a scam service.

Despite the promises of the most convenient, reliable, and client-friendly service, Bitsowex.com does not offer any of them. In fact, all this is just a shiny wrap around a dirty scam, which takes your money and data and never gives them back. Any tales about gifts, sponsorship from celebrities etc are non-existent as well.

Bitsowex Scam Overview

Originally, Bitsowex poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with outstandingly low commission fees. Another highlighted marketing point for this platform is partnerships with celebrities that are known as crypto activists. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Vitalii Buterin, Warren Buffet – the site claims having significant support from them. To make these claims look real, con actors use AI-generated videos with those celebs advertise the fraud as the best thing in the world. For obvious reasons, Elon Musk is the most common among them. But, as I said in the introduction, all this is just a vivid wrap around an obvious scam.

Bitsowex Scam

To begin with, Bitsowex shares the appearance of numerous similar pages. There are quite a few examples, like Bitxspark, Nevofex or Tokenely. They are totally identical in terms of visual elements, with small discrepancies in the site header. Other particulars, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are the same. Presumably, all these deceptive sites are led by a single team of swindrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Bitsowex Scam Works?

Bitsowex is a part of a significant cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Rascals who stand behind it use numerous website designs, which still share the similar 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 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 begin the deceptive scheme, criminals create and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They generally aim at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign commences. Utilizing bots and paid promotions (when possible), scam actors intensify the exposure of their scam activities to potential victims. And as I said, fraudsters do not shy away using generative AI for creating videos with the aforementioned celebrities that advertise 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 Bitsowex in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users get an incentive to register, drawn by the promise of receiving cryptocurrency rewards valued at hundreds of dollars, all without cost. To enhance the appeal of the offer, fake suggestions of cooperation with a celebrity are added. As you may guess, these claims are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

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

At this point, it is possible to get away from the scam without any losses. Before you sign up using your personal info, 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, scammers bait folks for registration with bonuses. And all the personal data needed for it – username, email, crypto wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Only 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 equivalent sum. At this point, the final stage of the scam kicks in.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Eventually, any crypto operations require having money on your account. With Bitsowex, users are also compelled to top up to get the bonuses. And this is what creates most of the cash flow to this scam site. By topping up the account, users hope to get the committed gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start engaging on this website hoping to use all the credited capital and withdraw them.

This is where the issues start to surface. When comparing the actual cryptocurrency wallet vs what the site says, you can observe that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to retrieve 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 return your money. Though to make the denial look more legitimate, they’ve made up a whole bunch of reasons to decline the withdrawal request. Usually, they repeat what Know Your Client guidelines say, but in this case they are here only to make the wireout impossible.

By asking for your personal information, deceivers 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 funds back. And every check will reveal more and more info of yours, which – you guessed it right – will be then traded 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 Bitsowex.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Bitsowex 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 duration of the scam, its actors may get in touch with you with particular documents. Alternatively, they may suggest you to install “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to simplify access to your cryptocurrency funds. As we already determined, these scoundrels have no intention of giving back your funds. So, what do these email messages and browser extensions represent? You guessed – this is another side of the deceptive plan designed to throw you into deliberately installing harmful software onto your device.

Both extensions and attachments included to email messages can function as a shell for various malicious software. In this scenario, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among other types of malicious programs. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the probability is always greater than zero. As noted, their ethics is of negligible importance, and their reputation is already seriously marred. They have no scruples to lose and strive to boost revenues.

Frequently asked questions