The Dryston Scam – Don’t Become the Next Victim

Recently, Dryston.com site popped up, promoting itself as a place where you can safely keep cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather credible evidence that clearly confirms it is, in fact, a scam site.

Regardless of the promises of the most user-friendly, reliable, and client-friendly service, Dryston.com does not follow any of them. In fact, all this is just a golden wrap around a blatant scam, which takes your funds and never returns them. Any tales about bonuses, backing from celebrities etc are nowhere to be found as well.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

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Dryston Scam Overview

Originally, Dryston poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet platform with remarkably low commission fees. Another bright marketing point for this service is backing from celebrities that are known in the crypto world. Vitalii Buterin (Ethereum creator), Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet – the site claims having significant support from them. To make these claims look more realistic, con actors use deepfake videos where those celebrities promote the fake crypto service 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 blatant wrap around an obvious scam.

Dryston Scam

First and foremost, Dryston shares the design of many similar websites. There are quite a few examples, like Cointrix, Duobitex or Nimmex. They are completely undistinguishable in terms of visual elements, with minor discrepancies in the site header. Other specific elements, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Most likely, all these deceptive websites are managed by a single team of scoundrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Dryston Scam Works?

Dryston is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Swindlers who stand behind it use numerous 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 sophisticated 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 scam, criminals set up and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They primarily target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign begins. Using bots and sponsored ads (when achievable), fraud actors intensify the visibility of their fraudulent activities to potential victims. And as I said, crooks do not disdain using generative AI for creating videos with the aforementioned celebs that advertise their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, frauds claim the bonus for every user who enrolls the service immediately.

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

Users receive an incentive to sign up, attracted by the assurance of receiving cryptocurrency rewards valued at thousands of dollars, all without cost. To increase the attractiveness of the offer, fake claims of sponsorship by a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these claims are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon following the promos, victims end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with Dryston”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Dryston, “Start earning with Dryston – they look rather authoritative. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, scammers say that claiming the promoted bonus requires registration. And since nothing questionable happens at this point, unaware users happily proceed – 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 sign up using your personal info, 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 said, scammers bait folks for registration with bonuses. And all the personal data needed for it – username, email, cryptocurrency wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Exclusively by gathering this info 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 promised bonus right away. To make at least cryptocurrency purchases on the platform with it, you need to 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 operations require having money on your account. With Dryston, users are also coerced to top up to claim the bonuses. And this is what creates most of the money flow to this fraudulent 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 capital and withdraw them.

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

Step 5: Escaping from Funds Withdrawal

Needless to say that fraudsters have 0 intentions to return your money. But to make the denial look more legitimate, they’ve developed a whole pack of reasons to decline the withdrawal request. Usually, they repeat what KYC requirements say, but for the Dryston.com they are here exclusively to make the wireout impossible.

By requesting 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 multiple other checks you would desperately need to undergo before getting your funds 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 Dryston.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Dryston 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.

• Immediate Reporting. Your initial step should involve promptly notifying local authorities specializing in financial fraud. Extend your reach by reaching out to wallet providers and engaging with social networks’ technical support teams. These actions serve to raise the bar for the scammers’ operations.
• Share among Friends. Amplify your efforts by informing your close friends about the scam. Similar to informing authorities, this dissemination of information restricts the scammers’ potential victim pool.
• Preserve Crucial Information. Compile a comprehensive evidence archive by capturing screenshots and archiving all relevant website-related data. Collect the website URL, screenshots of the main page, login interface, end-user license agreement (EULA), account top-up menu, and wallet addresses. These records could provide vital clues for authorities in their pursuit of the scammers.
• Exploring Refund Options. While most banks’ refund policies may exclude cryptocurrency payments, it’s advisable to explore potential refund avenues under specific circumstances. Maintain hope until you obtain confirmation of the loss.
• Transform Loss into Knowledge. Turn your financial setback into an opportunity for growth. View your loss as an investment in understanding the strategies employed by crypto scam sites. Familiarize yourself with their telltale characteristics, the methods they employ to entice individuals, and the extravagant promises they make. Equipped with this insight, you’ll be well-prepared to spot and evade future traps without suffering additional financial setbacks.

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 suggest you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to streamline access to your cryptocurrency assets. As we earlier determined, these deceivers have no intention of returning your funds. So, what do these email messages and browser extensions represent? Correct – that is another side of the deceptive plan designed to throw you into willingly running malicious programs onto your system.

Both extensions and files included to email messages can act as a carrier for different malware. In this case, I foresee the presence of spyware and stealers among other types of threats. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the chance is always above zero. As previously mentioned, their ethics is of no concern, and their reputation is already neck deep in mud. They have no principles to give up and aim to maximize gains.

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