Investigating Cenotor: Legit or Scam? The Truth Revealed

Recently, Cenotor.com website appeared, promoting itself as a platform to store cryptocurrency and other assets securely. I managed to gather credible supporting information that clearly confirms it is, in truth, a deceptive site.

Despite the promises of the most user-friendly, trustworthy, and customer-centric service, Cenotor.com does not follow any of them. All this is just a shiny wrap around a clear scam, which steals your funds and never returns them. Any tales about bonuses, backing from celebrities etc are absent as well.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

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Cenotor Scam Overview

Originally, Cenotor poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet service with remarkably low commission fees. Another bright selling point for this platform is backing from celebrities that are known in 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, rascals employ AI-generated videos where those celebrities promote the scam as the best thing in the world. For known reasons, Elon Musk is the most common choise for that. But, as I said in the introduction, all this is just a blatant wrap around an obvious scam.

Cenotor Scam

Initially, Cenotor repeats the layout of many similar online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Fenomir, Gg or Cryptobtcash. They are completely undistinguishable in terms of visual elements, with small discrepancies in the site header. Other particulars, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are matching. Most likely, all these deceptive sites are led by a single team of fraudsters.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Cenotor Scam Works?

Cenotor is a part of a significant cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Rascals 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 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 start the scam, criminals set up and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They mainly target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign begins. Using bots and paid promotions (when feasible), scam actors boost the visibility of their deceptive activities to potential victims. And as I said, scammers do not disdain 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 joins the service immediately.

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

Users get an incentive to sign up, enticed by the commitment of obtaining cryptocurrency benefits valued at hundreds of dollars, all without cost. To enhance the appeal of the offer, false suggestions of cooperation with a celebrity are added. As you may guess, these claims are entirely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

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

This is the last stage when it is possible to get away from the scam without any losses. Before you sign up using your personal data, frauds will not be able to earn even a penny from your presence on the website.

Step 3: Data Gathering

This is the starting poing of the main fraud action. As I just said, deceivers bait folks into registration to get bonuses. And all the personal data needed for it – email, username, cryptocurrency wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Solely by gathering this information and selling it further into the Darknet, crooks can earn quite a penny. Still, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, the claimed bonus is not available to use right away. To make at least cryptocurrency purchases on the platform with it, the user should top up the account with the equivalent sum. At this point, the final stage of the scam begins.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Obviously, any crypto purchases require having capital on your account. With Cenotor, users are also compelled to top up to use the bonuses. And this is what creates most of the money 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 participating on this website hoping to use all the transferred funds and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the issues start to surface. When comparing the real crypto wallet vs what the website says, you can observe that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to withdraw the capital from your account, the scam is finally uncovered to the user.

Step 5: Escaping from Funds Withdrawal

Needless to say that swindlers are naught on intentions to give your money back. 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 regulations say, but in this case they are here exclusively to make the wireout impossible.

By requesting your personal info, frauds 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 Cenotor.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

• False Celebrity Sponsorship. Cenotor 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. Cenotor.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. Cenotor 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. Cenotor.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%, Cenotor preys on the desire for quick profits. Yet, the volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market makes such gains highly unlikely, definitively labeling Cenotor as a scam.

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Cenotor 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 timeline of the fraud, scoundrels may contact you with particular documents. Alternatively, they may propose you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to streamline access to your cryptocurrency funds. As we earlier figured out, these deceivers have no intention of returning your money. So, what do these email messages and browser plugins represent? You guessed it right – this is another side of the fraudulent scheme designed to entice you into willingly running malicious software onto your system.

Both extensions and attachments included to emails can serve as a carrier for different malicious software. In this case, I foresee the presence of spyware and stealers among other kinds of malicious programs. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always above zero. As noted, their conscience is of little concern, and their dignity is already deeply compromised. They have no scruples to give up and strive to maximize profits.

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