We Looked at the Evidence: Is Celinax Legit or Scam?

Recently, Celinax.com service popped up, promoting itself as a platform where you can safely keep cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather reliable evidence that clearly indicates it is, actually, a scam platform.

Regardless of the promises of the most convenient, dependable, and customer-centric service, Celinax.com does not offer any of them. All this is just a shiny wrap around a dirty scam, which steals your money and never returns them. Any tales about gifts, sponsorship from celebrities etc are absent as well.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

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Celinax Scam Overview

Originally, Celinax poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet platform with outstandingly low commission fees. Another bright selling point for this site is backing from celebrities that are known as crypto activists. Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Vitalii Buterin, Jeff Bezos – the site says about being supported by them. To make these claims look real, con actors use deepfake 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 mentioned above, all this is just a blatant wrap around a transparent scam.

Celinax Scam

Initially, Celinax repeats the layout of numerous equivalent websites. There are quite a few examples, like Beastox, Relybit or Expressboostoption. They are completely undistinguishable in terms of graphic elements, with small discrepancies in the webpage header. Other particulars, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are identical. Presumably, all these fraudulent sites are managed by the same gang of frauds.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Celinax Scam Works?

Celinax is a part of a large 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 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 complex 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 set up and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They primarily focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the marketing campaign commences. Employing bots and paid ads (when achievable), scam actors boost the visibility of their scam activities to possible victims. And as I said, crooks do not shy away using generative AI for creating videos with the mentioned celebrities that promote their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, frauds claim the bonus for every user who registers the service immediately.

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

Users get an encouragement to sign up, enticed by the commitment of obtaining crypto rewards valued at hundreds of dollars, all for free. To increase the attractiveness of the offer, false 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, victims end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with Celinax”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Celinax, “Start earning with Celinax – they look rather credible. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, scammers say that retrieving the promised bonus requires registration. And since nothing concerning happens at this point, unaware users happily move 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 information, swindrels 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, frauds bait folks for registration with bonuses. And all the personal data needed for it – email, username, crypto wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Solely by gathering this information 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 alleged bonus right away. To make it at least usable for cryptocurrency purchases, you need to top up the account with the equivalent sum. At this point, the final stage of the scam kicks in.

Step 4: Requesting funds

It is obvious that any crypto purchases require you to have capital on your account. In the case of Celinax, users are also forced to top up to use 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 committed gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start engaging on this site hoping to use all the credited capital and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the victim notices the issues. When comparing the real crypto wallet vs what the site says, you can notice that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to retrieve 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 are naught on intentions to return your money. Though to make the fraud look more legitimate, they’ve elaborated a whole bunch of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Most of them repeat what KYC regulations say, but for the Celinax.com they are here only to make the wireout impossible.

By asking for your personal info, scammers just stall hoping for you to accept the loss and stop contacting them. If you don’t – well, there are numerous other checks you would desperately need to undergo before getting your money back. And each of these checks will share 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 Celinax.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Celinax 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 fraud, its masters may reach out to you with particular documents. Alternatively, they may offer you to set up “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your cryptocurrency funds. As we earlier determined, these scoundrels have no intent of giving back your capital. So, what can these emails and browser extensions represent? Correct – this is another element of the scam designed to throw you into willingly installing malicious software onto your device.

Both plugins and files added to emails can act as a carrier for different malicious code. In this scenario, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among all types of malicious programs. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the chance is always existent. As noted, their morality is of negligible importance, and their dignity is already deeply compromised. They have nothing to lose and aim to maximize profits.

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