Coinastar Review: Legit or Scam? Read This First

Recently, Coinastar.com service surfaced, promoting itself as a place to keep cryptocurrency and other assets securely. I managed to gather reliable evidence that unmistakably confirms it is, actually, a deceptive service.

Regardless of the promises of the most easy, trustworthy, and customer-centric service, Coinastar.com does not offer any of them. In fact, all this is just a shiny wrap around a blatant scam, which steals your money and data and never returns them. Any tales about bonuses, backing from celebrities etc are absent as well.

Coinastar Scam Overview

Originally, Coinastar poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet service with remarkably low commission fees. Another notable marketing point for this site is partnerships with celebrities that are known in the crypto world. Vitalii Buterin (Ethereum creator), Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet – the site says about being supported by them. To make these claims look real, frauds employ deepfake videos with those celebs promote the fake crypto service 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 vivid wrap around a transparent scam.

Coinastar Scam

To begin with, Coinastar copies the appearance of many similar websites. There are quite a few examples, like Bitmartai, Bexusx or Befeno. They are completely indistinguishable in terms of graphic elements, with minor discrepancies in the site header. Other details, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are the same. Most likely, all these fraudulent online platforms are led by the same gang of swindrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Coinastar Scam Works?

Coinastar is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating vividly in 2023. Scammers who stand behind it use several 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 mainly focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign begins. Employing bots and paid advertisements (when feasible), fraud actors intensify the exposure of their deceptive activities to potential victims. And as I said, scammers do not shy away 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 registers the service immediately.

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

Users obtain an encouragement to sign up, attracted by the commitment of getting cryptocurrency rewards valued at hundreds of dollars, all free of charge. To enhance the attractiveness of the offer, fake suggestions of sponsorship by a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these assertions are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon clicking the promotions, users end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with Coinastar”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Coinastar, “Start earning with Coinastar – they look rather authoritative. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, scammers say that getting the pledged bonus requires registration. And as 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 get away from the scam without any losses. Before you register using your personal information, frauds 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 mentioned, deceivers bait folks into signing up for bonuses. And all the personal info needed for it – email, username, crypto wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Only by gathering this data and selling it further into the Darknet, fraudsters 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 at least crypto purchases on the platform with it, you need to top up the account with the sum of a bonus. And this is what starts the final step of the scam.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Eventually, any crypto operations require you to have money on your account. In the case of Coinastar, users are also coerced to top up to claim the bonuses. And this is what creates the majority of the money 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 participating on this website hoping to use all the deposited funds and withdraw them.

This is where the problems start to surface. When keeping an eye on the real cryptocurrency wallet vs what the website says, you can observe that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to pull out the capital 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 are naught on intentions to give your money back. But to make it look more legitimate, they’ve made up a whole pack of reasons to decline the withdrawal request. Most of them repeat what KYC regulations say, but in this case they are here exclusively to make the withdrawal impossible.

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

• Cryptocurrency-Only Transactions. Coinastar.com insists on cryptocurrency payments exclusively, excluding conventional methods like bank transfers. This strategy ensures anonymity for the scam and eliminates any possibility of seeking refunds.
• Dubious Company Credentials. Coinastar arouses suspicion by failing to provide critical information about ownership, location, and legal registration. The lack of valid contact details and the recent creation of domain and social media profiles cast doubt on its legitimacy.
• Baseless Hype Generation. Coinastar resorts to fabricating non-existent achievements, such as contracts with Coinbase or endorsements from Elon Musk, to manipulate emotions and enhance the perception of potential returns, enticing victims to invest more.
• Fictitious Celebrity Association. Coinastar employs a deceptive tactic by falsely associating itself with well-known figures like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mr. Beast, and Mark Zuckerberg. Additionally, the scam falsely claims partnerships with established entities like Coinbase, Binance, or MetaMask to bolster its false credibility.
• Potential Ponzi-Like Model. The scam operates on a pyramid-style referral system disseminated through social media, benefiting only initial participants and relying on later investments to sustain the illusion.
• Unrealistic Profit Promises. Promising improbable returns of 50-100-200%, Coinastar capitalizes on the desire for high profits. However, the tumultuous nature of the cryptocurrency market renders such gains implausible, solidifying Coinastar.com as a definite scam.

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Coinastar 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, fraudsters may contact you with particular files. Alternatively, they may offer you to set up “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to streamline access to your cryptocurrency savings. As we earlier determined, these scammers have no intent of restoring your funds. So, what do these email messages and browser extensions represent? Correct – that is another element of the scam designed to entice you into deliberately running malicious software onto your system.

Both extensions and files attached to emails can serve as a shell for various malicious code. In this case, I anticipate the presence of spyware and stealers among all forms of malware. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always greater than zero. As stated, their conscience is of no concern, and their reputation is already seriously marred. They have nothing to give up and strive to boost revenues.

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