We Looked Into Bitvips: Scam or Trustworthy? The Verdict

Recently, Bitvips.com website popped up, promoting itself as a platform where you can securely keep cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather credible evidence that unmistakably confirms it is, in truth, a deceptive platform.

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

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

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Bitvips Scam Overview

Originally, Bitvips poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with remarkably low commission fees. Another notable selling point for this platform is partnerships with celebrities that have relation to the crypto world. 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 deepfake videos with those celebs advertise the fake crypto service as if it was the best thing in the world. For known 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.

Bitvips Scam

Initially, Bitvips repeats the design of many similar pages. There are quite a few examples, like Nexatradex, Astral or Bitrevo. They are entirely identical in terms of visual elements, with small discrepancies in the website header. Other specific elements, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Probably, all these scam online platforms are led by a single group of scammers.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Bitvips Scam Works?

Bitvips is a part of a significant cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively 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 advanced psychological tricks that make the user believe in the validity of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To initiate the deceptive scheme, criminals establish and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They primarily target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign starts. Employing bots and paid ads (when achievable), scam actors boost the presence of their fraudulent activities to possible victims. And as I said, crooks do not shy away using deepfake for creating clips with the mentioned celebs that promote 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 Bitvips in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users obtain an incentive to sign up, drawn by the commitment of getting crypto rewards valued at thousands of dollars, all for free. To augment the attractiveness of the offer, fake suggestions of cooperation with a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these claims are entirely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon following the promotions, targets end up on a page filled with attractive offers. “Crypto starts with Bitvips”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Bitvips, “Start earning with Bitvips – they look rather credible. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, crooks say that obtaining the promoted bonus requires registration. And as nothing questionable happens at this point, uninformed users happily keep on – especially since the gift 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, swindrels 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 into registration for bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – username, email, cryptocurrency wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Exclusively by gathering this info and selling it further into the Darknet, fraudsters can earn quite a penny. Still, their plans go much further.

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

Step 4: Requesting funds

It is obvious that any crypto operations require you to have funds on your account. In the case of Bitvips, users are also forced to top up to get the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates the majority of the money flow to this fraudulent site. By topping up the account, users hope to get the promised gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start engaging on this website hoping to use all the transferred money and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the first obvious issues start to surface. When keeping an eye on the real crypto wallet vs what the site says, you can spot that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to retrieve the money from your account, the scam is finally uncovered to the user.

Step 5: Escaping from Funds Withdrawal

There’s no need to explain that scoundrels are naught on intentions to send you money. But to make the fraud look more realistic, they’ve developed a whole bunch of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Most of them repeat what Know Your Client requirements say, but for the Bitvips.com they are here exclusively to make the wireout impossible.

By asking for your personal data, scammers 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 grand back. And each of these checks will share more and more info of yours, 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 Bitvips.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Bitvips 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, rascals may reach out to you with particular files. Alternatively, they may suggest you to set up “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your crypto assets. As we already figured out, these scoundrels have no intention of returning your capital. So, what can these emails and browser extensions represent? Correct – this is another element of the fraudulent scheme designed to throw you into willingly installing malicious software onto your system.

Both plugins and files attached to emails can function as a shell for diverse malicious code. In this case, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among all types of malware. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the probability is always existent. As noted, their ethics is of no concern, and their reputation is already neck deep in mud. They have nothing to lose and aim to maximize profits.

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