We Looked Into Cointrust-zar: Scam or Trustworthy? The Verdict

Recently, Cointrust-zar.world website popped up, promoting itself as a place where you can securely store cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather credible proof that clearly indicates it is, in truth, a scam site.

Despite the promises of the most user-friendly, trustworthy, and client-friendly service, Cointrust-zar.world does not offer any of them. In fact, all this is just a golden wrap around a blatant scam, which steals your money and data and never returns them. Any stories about bonuses, sponsorship from celebrities etc are nowhere to be found as well.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

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Cointrust-zar Scam Overview

Originally, Cointrust-zar poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet service with exceptionally low commission fees. Another notable selling point for this platform is partnerships with celebrities that have relation to the crypto world. Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Vitalii Buterin, Jeff Bezos – the site claims having significant support from them. To make these claims look real, con actors employ AI-generated videos where those celebrities promote the fraud as if it was the best thing in the world. Obviously, Elon Musk is the most common choise for that. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a vivid wrap around a transparent scam.

Cointrust-zar Scam

First and foremost, Cointrust-zar repeats the layout of numerous similar pages. There are quite a few examples, like Woxbiom, Wexbits or Vetradex. They are completely undistinguishable in terms of visual elements, with slight discrepancies in the website header. Other specific elements, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Most likely, all these scam online platforms are operated by the same group of scammers.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Cointrust-zar Scam Works?

Cointrust-zar 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 identical overall layout. Another common 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 authenticity of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To begin the fraud, criminals set up and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They primarily target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign starts. Using bots and paid advertisements (when achievable), scam actors increase the visibility of their fraudulent activities to possible victims. And as I said, scammers do not disdain using generative AI for creating videos with the aforementioned 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 Cointrust-zar in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users get an encouragement to sign up, enticed by the promise of receiving cryptocurrency rewards valued at hundreds of dollars, all for free. To enhance the attractiveness of the offer, fake claims of cooperation with a celebrity are added. As you may guess, these assertions are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon clicking the ads, victims end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with Cointrust-zar”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Cointrust-zar, “Start earning with Cointrust-zar – they look rather authoritative. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, scammers say that claiming the promised bonus requires registration. And as nothing questionable happens at this point, uninformed users happily proceed – especially as the gift appears to be right behind the corner.

At this point, it is possible to skip the scam without any losses. Before you register using your personal data, swindrels will not earn even a nickel from your presence on the website.

Step 3: Data Gathering

This is the starting poing of the main fraud action. As I just said, scammers bait folks into registration to get bonuses. And all the personal data needed for it – email, username, crypto wallet address – is 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, the alleged 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 kicks in.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Eventually, any crypto purchases require having funds on your account. In the case of Cointrust-zar, users are also coerced to top up to get the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates most of the cash 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 capital and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the problems start to surface. When keeping an eye on the real cryptocurrency wallet vs what the site says, you can observe 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 zero intentions to return your money. But to make it look more legitimate, they’ve elaborated a whole bunch of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Usually, they repeat what Know Your Client requirements say, but in this case they are here exclusively to make the wireout impossible.

By asking for your personal info, scammers 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 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 Cointrust-zar.world. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Cointrust-zar 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 timeline of the scam, its masters may get in touch with you with specific documents. Alternatively, they may offer you to install “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your cryptocurrency funds. As we already figured out, these scammers have no intention of returning your capital. So, what can these messages and browser extensions represent? You guessed it right – that is another side of the scam designed to entice you into deliberately running malicious programs onto your system.

Both add-ons and files attached to emails can act as a carrier for various malicious software. In this scenario, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among other types of malicious programs. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the probability is always existent. As previously mentioned, their ethics is of no concern, and their reputation is already seriously marred. They have nothing to give up and strive to maximize revenues.

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