We Investigated Cerotix: Legit or Scam? The Facts

Recently, Cerotix.com site popped up, promoting itself as a platform to keep cryptocurrency and other assets safely. I managed to gather credible proof that clearly reveals it is, actually, a fraudulent platform.

Despite the promises of the most easy, trustworthy, and customer-centric service, Cerotix.com does not fulfill any of them. In fact, all this is just a gilded wrap around a dirty scam, which steals your money and never returns them. Any stories about gifts, endorsement from celebrities etc are non-existent as well.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

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Cerotix Scam Overview

Originally, Cerotix poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet platform with exceptionally low commission fees. Another bright selling point for this service 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 more realistic, con actors employ deepfake videos where those celebrities advertise the fraud as the best thing in the world. Obviously, 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.

Cerotix Scam

To begin with, Cerotix copies the design of numerous similar websites. There are quite a few examples, like Bittvine, Wicrex or Waexch. They are totally identical in terms of visual elements, with minor discrepancies in the webpage header. Other details, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are the same. Presumably, all these scam sites are led by a single gang of fraudsters.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Cerotix Scam Works?

Cerotix is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Swindlers who stand behind it use various website designs, which still share the same 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 start the fraud, criminals create and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They mainly focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign starts. Employing bots and paid ads (when possible), fraud actors increase the visibility of their deceptive activities to possible victims. And as I said, scammers do not disdain using generative AI for creating clips with the mentioned 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 Cerotix in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users get a stimulus to register, enticed by the promise of receiving crypto rewards valued at hundreds of dollars, all free of charge. To increase the attractiveness of the offer, false claims of sponsorship by a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these claims are entirely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

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

This is the last stage when it is possible to steer away from the scam without any losses. Before you register using your personal info, rascals 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, scammers bait folks into registration for bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – username, email, cryptocurrency wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Solely by gathering this data and selling it further into the Darknet, swindlers 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 crypto purchases, the user should top up the account with the sum of a bonus. At this point, the final stage of the scam begins.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Obviously, any crypto purchases require you to have capital on your account. In the case of Cerotix, users are also compelled to top up to use the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates most of the cash flow to this scam website. By topping up the account, users hope to get the promised gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start participating on this website hoping to use all the credited funds and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the issues start to surface. When comparing the actual crypto wallet vs what the site says, you can spot 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 are naught on intentions to send you money. But to make the fraud look more legitimate, they’ve developed a whole pack of reasons to decline the wireout request. Usually, they repeat what Know Your Client guidelines say, but for the Cerotix.com they are here only to make the withdrawal impossible.

By asking for your personal data, deceivers just stall hoping for you to understand that you’ve been scammed and stop contacting them. If you don’t – well, there are numerous other checks you should go through before getting your money back. And each of these checks 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 Cerotix.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Cerotix 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 duration of the scam, fraudsters may reach out to you with particular documents. Alternatively, they may suggest you to install “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to simplify access to your crypto funds. As we previously figured out, these deceivers have no intent of giving back your funds. So, what do these email messages and browser extensions represent? You guessed – this is another element of the deceptive plan designed to entice you into willingly installing harmful software onto your system.

Both add-ons and files added to emails can serve as a carrier for diverse malware. In this case, I foresee the presence of spyware and stealers among other types of malicious programs. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always existent. As noted, their morality is of negligible importance, and their dignity is already deeply compromised. They have no scruples to give up and aim to maximize profits.

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