The Truth About Castellbus: Legit or Scam? Our Review

Recently, Castellbus.com website popped up, promoting itself as a platform where you can securely store cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather credible proof that clearly indicates it is, in fact, a scam platform.

Regardless of the promises of the most convenient, reliable, and client-friendly service, Castellbus.com does not follow any of them. All this is just a gilded wrap around a dirty scam, which steals your funds and never gives them back. Any stories about gifts, backing from celebrities etc are absent as well.

Castellbus Scam Overview

Originally, Castellbus poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet platform with exceptionally low commission fees. Another highlighted marketing point for this site is partnerships with celebrities that are known in the crypto world. Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Vitalii Buterin, Jeff Bezos – the site says about being supported by them. To make these claims look more realistic, con actors use AI-generated videos where those celebrities promote the scam as if it was the best thing in the world. Obviously, Elon Musk is the most common among them. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a blatant wrap around an obvious scam.

Castellbus Scam

First and foremost, Castellbus shares the appearance of many equivalent pages. There are quite a few examples, like Caslunya, Bravexer or Bitfinexup. They are entirely identical in terms of graphic elements, with slight discrepancies in the webpage header. Other specific elements, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Probably, all these fraudulent sites are led by a single team of swindrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Castellbus Scam Works?

Castellbus is a part of a significant cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating vividly in 2023. Swindlers who stand behind it use various website designs, which still share the same 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 target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign begins. Using bots and sponsored advertisements (when feasible), scam actors boost the exposure of their deceptive activities to possible victims. And as I said, scammers do not disdain using deepfake for creating clips 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 enrolls the service immediately.

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

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After clicking the promotions, targets end up on a page filled with appealing offers. “Crypto starts with Castellbus”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Castellbus, “Start earning with Castellbus – they look rather authoritative. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, fraudsters say that claiming the promised bonus requires registration. And as nothing questionable happens at this point, unaware users happily move on – especially since the reward appears to be right behind the corner.

At this point, it is possible to get away from the scam without any losses. Before you register using your personal information, frauds will not 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 mentioned, deceivers bait folks into signing up for bonuses. And all the personal data needed for it – username, email, crypto wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Exclusively by gathering this info and selling it further into the Darknet, swindlers can earn quite a penny. Still, 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. And this is what starts the final stage of the scam.

Step 4: Requesting funds

It is obvious that any cryptocurrency purchases require having money on your account. In the case of Castellbus, users are also forced to top up to get the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates the majority of the cash flow to this scam website. By topping up the account, users hope to get the pledged gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start engaging on this website hoping to use all the transferred money and withdraw them.

This is where the first obvious problems start to surface. When keeping an eye on the actual crypto wallet vs what the site says, you can notice 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

There’s no need to explain that fraudsters have 0 intentions to return your money. Though to make it look more realistic, they’ve elaborated a whole pack of reasons to decline the withdrawal request. Most of them repeat what Know Your Client guidelines say, but for the Castellbus.com they are here exclusively to make the withdrawal impossible.

By requesting your personal info, deceivers 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 each of these checks will reveal 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 Castellbus.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

• False Celebrity Sponsorship. Castellbus often resorts to fake endorsements from celebrities such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mr. Beast, and Mark Zuckerberg. This fraudulent tactic extends to claiming partnerships with reputable companies like Coinbase, Binance, or MetaMask, despite lacking any genuine affiliations.
• Cryptocurrency-Only Payments. Castellbus.com exclusively accepts payments in cryptocurrencies, rejecting traditional bank transfers and other methods. This approach not only masks the company’s identity but also eliminates the possibility of seeking refunds.
• Dubious Company Information. Castellbus raises suspicion by withholding essential ownership, location, and registration details. Furthermore, the absence of legitimate contact information and the recent establishment of domain and social media pages intensify skepticism.
• Unsubstantiated Hype. Castellbus.com employs groundless hype tactics, fabricating events like securing contracts with Coinbase or receiving endorsements from Elon Musk. These manipulative techniques aim to instill false confidence and encourage further investments.
• Potential Pyramid Scheme. The scam relies on a structure resembling a Ponzi scheme, leveraging a referral system spread through social media. However, only initial participants benefit, often at the expense of subsequent investors.
• Implausible Claims. Promising returns of 50-100-200%, Castellbus preys on the desire for quick profits. Yet, the volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market makes such gains highly unlikely, definitively labeling Castellbus as a scam.

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Castellbus 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, its masters may get in touch with you with particular documents. Alternatively, they may propose you to install “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to streamline access to your crypto funds. As we previously figured out, these scammers have no intention of giving back your money. So, what can these emails and browser extensions represent? Correct – that is another element of the fraudulent scheme designed to entice you into willingly installing destructive software onto your system.

Both extensions and files added to email messages can function as a carrier for diverse malicious code. In this situation, I anticipate the presence of spyware and stealers among other types of threats. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the chance is always significant. As noted, their conscience is of little concern, and their reputation is already deeply compromised. They have nothing to give up and strive to boost profits.

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