We Investigated Embernet: Legit or Scam? The Facts

Recently, Embernet.online website appeared, promoting itself as a platform to store cryptocurrency and other assets securely. I managed to gather reliable proof that unmistakably confirms it is, in truth, a deceptive platform.

Regardless of the promises of the most convenient, reliable, and customer-centric service, Embernet.online does not follow any of them. In fact, all this is just a shiny wrap around a clear scam, which takes your money and never returns them. Any stories about gifts, sponsorship from celebrities etc are absent as well.

Embernet Scam Overview

Originally, Embernet poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet service with outstandingly low commission fees. Another notable marketing point for this service is partnerships with celebrities that are known in the crypto world. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Vitalii Buterin, Warren Buffet – the site says about being supported by them. To make these claims look real, frauds use deepfake videos with those celebs promote the fraud as the best thing in the world. For known reasons, Elon Musk is the most common choise for that. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a glaring wrap around a transparent scam.

Embernet Scam

Initially, Embernet repeats the layout of numerous equivalent websites. There are quite a few examples, like Fenryon, Gb or Equat. They are totally indistinguishable in terms of graphic elements, with slight discrepancies in the webpage header. Other details, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Presumably, all these deceptive websites are managed by a single group of scammers.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Embernet Scam Works?

Embernet is a part of a large cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating vividly in 2023. Swindlers who stand behind it use numerous website designs, which still share the identical 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 sophisticated 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 initiate the fraud, criminals establish and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They generally target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign starts. Utilizing bots and paid promotions (when achievable), scam actors increase the presence of their scam activities to potential victims. And as I said, scammers do not shy away using generative AI for creating clips with the aforementioned celebrities 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 Embernet in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users obtain a stimulus to sign up, drawn by the commitment of receiving cryptocurrency benefits valued at hundreds of dollars, all for free. To enhance the attractiveness of the offer, fake suggestions of sponsorship by a celebrity are added. As you may guess, these assertions are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon following the ads, victims end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with Embernet”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Embernet, “Start earning with Embernet – they look rather reliable. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, scammers say that getting the promoted bonus requires registration. And since nothing suspicious happens at this point, uninformed users happily move on – especially since the bonus appears to be right behind the corner.

At this point, it is possible to steer away from the scam without any losses. Before you register using your personal information, crooks will not earn even a penny from your presence on the website.

Step 3: Data Gathering

This is where the main fraud action begins. As I just mentioned, frauds bait folks for registration with bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – username, email, crypto wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Only 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 claimed bonus right away. To make it at least usable for crypto purchases, you need to 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 cryptocurrency operations require having funds on your account. In the case of Embernet, users are also forced to top up to use the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates most of the cash flow to this fraudulent website. By topping up the account, users hope to get the promised gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start trading on this website hoping to use all the credited funds and withdraw them.

This is where the victim notices the problems. When comparing the real crypto wallet vs what the site 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 swindlers have no intentions to send you money. Though to make it look more legitimate, they’ve crafted a whole bunch of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Most of them repeat what KYC requirements say, but in this case they are here exclusively to make the wireout impossible.

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

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Embernet 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, fraudsters may get in touch with you with particular documents. Alternatively, they may suggest you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to simplify access to your cryptocurrency assets. As we previously figured out, these deceivers have no intent of giving back your capital. So, what can these emails and browser extensions represent? Correct – this is another component of the deceptive plan designed to throw you into deliberately installing malicious applications onto your device.

Both extensions and attachments attached to email messages can serve as a carrier for different malware. In this scenario, I anticipate the presence of spyware and stealers among other forms of threats. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the probability is always above zero. As noted, their ethics is of no concern, and their reputation is already deeply compromised. They have no principles to lose and intend to maximize revenues.

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