The BlockchainDeFi Scam – Don’t Become the Next Victim

Recently, Fixdapps.xyz service popped up, promoting itself as a place to store cryptocurrency and other assets securely. I managed to gather credible supporting information that unmistakably indicates it is, actually, a fraudulent site.

Regardless of the promises of the most easy, trustworthy, and client-friendly service, Fixdapps.xyz does not fulfill any of them. All this is just a gilded wrap around a dirty scam, which takes your money and data and never returns them. Any tales about gifts, endorsement from celebrities etc are absent as well.

BlockchainDeFi Scam Overview

Originally, BlockchainDeFi poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with outstandingly low commission fees. Another highlighted selling point for this platform is backing from 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, frauds employ AI-generated videos where those celebrities promote 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 blatant wrap around an obvious scam.

BlockchainDeFi Scam

First and foremost, BlockchainDeFi copies the layout of many equivalent online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Lumexed, Boddex or Notcoinex. They are completely undistinguishable in terms of visual elements, with slight discrepancies in the website header. Other details, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are matching. Probably, all these deceptive websites are led by the same group of swindrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the BlockchainDeFi Scam Works?

BlockchainDeFi 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 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 validity of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To start the fraud, criminals establish and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They primarily aim at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign commences. Using bots and paid advertisements (when feasible), fraud actors boost the exposure of their fraudulent activities to possible victims. And as I said, scammers do not shy away using generative AI for creating clips with the aforementioned celebs that advertise their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, swindlers claim the bonus for every user who enrolls the service immediately.

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

Users receive a stimulus to sign up, enticed by the commitment of getting cryptocurrency rewards valued at hundreds of dollars, all for free. To enhance the attractiveness of the offer, fake claims of sponsorship by a celebrity are added. As you may guess, these assertions are entirely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

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

This is the last stage when it is possible to skip the scam without any losses. Before you sign up using your personal info, crooks will not be able to earn even a nickel 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 information needed for it – username, email, crypto wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Solely by gathering this info 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, you need to 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 capital on your account. With BlockchainDeFi, users are also coerced to top up to claim the bonuses. And this is what creates most of the cash flow to this fraudulent site. By topping up the account, users hope to get the committed gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start trading on this site hoping to use all the transferred funds and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the first obvious 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 pull out 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 swindlers have zero intentions to give your money back. But to make the denial look more legitimate, they’ve made up a whole pack of reasons to decline the wireout request. Most of them repeat what Know Your Client requirements say, but for the Fixdapps.xyz they are here exclusively to make the wireout impossible.

By asking for your personal data, deceivers just stall hoping for you to accept the loss and stop contacting them. If you don’t – well, there are multiple other checks you should go through before getting your grand back. And every check will uncover more and more information, 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 Fixdapps.xyz. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with BlockchainDeFi 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 to Authorities. Your initial action should involve reporting the scam to local authorities responsible for addressing financial fraud. Additionally, reach out to wallet providers and engage with the technical support teams of social networks. This collective effort raises the bar for the scammers’ operations.
• Inform Your Inner Circle. Extend your impact by sharing information about the scam with your close friends. Similar to notifying authorities, this dissemination of details curbs the scammers’ potential to deceive.
• Document the Trail. Assemble a comprehensive record by capturing screenshots and archiving all relevant website-related data. This encompasses the website URL, screenshots of the main page, login interface, end-user license agreement (EULA), account top-up menu, and wallet addresses. These materials offer invaluable leads for authorities in their pursuit of the scammers.
• Explore Refund Possibilities. While cryptocurrency payments may not typically align with traditional bank refund policies, it’s worthwhile to explore potential refund avenues under specific circumstances. Maintain a positive outlook until you secure confirmation of the loss.
• Transform Loss into Insight. Shift your focus from the financial loss to gaining wisdom. Consider your loss as an investment in comprehending the tactics employed by crypto scam sites. Familiarize yourself with their distinctive traits, the methods they employ to entice individuals, and the extravagant pledges they make. This knowledge equips you to recognize and avoid future traps, minimizing the risk of enduring further financial setbacks.

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 contact you with specific files. Alternatively, they may propose you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your cryptocurrency funds. As we previously figured out, these deceivers have no intent of returning your funds. So, what can these messages and browser plugins represent? You guessed – this is another element of the deceptive plan designed to throw you into willingly running malicious applications onto your device.

Both add-ons and attachments attached to email messages can serve as a shell for different malicious software. In this scenario, I anticipate the presence of spyware and stealers among other kinds of malicious programs. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the probability is always significant. As stated, their ethics is of little concern, and their dignity is already deeply compromised. They have no principles to lose and aim to maximize gains.

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