We Investigated Expoviex: Legit or Scam? The Facts

Recently, Expoviex.com site appeared, promoting itself as a place to store cryptocurrency and other assets securely. I managed to gather reliable evidence that clearly indicates it is, actually, a fraudulent site.

Despite the promises of the most user-friendly, trustworthy, and client-friendly service, Expoviex.com does not fulfill any of them. In fact, all this is just a gilded wrap around a dirty scam, which takes your money and data and never returns them. Any tales about bonuses, backing from celebrities etc are non-existent as well.

Expoviex Scam Overview

Originally, Expoviex poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet platform with exceptionally low commission fees. Another highlighted marketing point for this service is partnerships with celebrities that are known as crypto activists. 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 real, frauds use deepfake videos with those celebs advertise the fake crypto service as if it was the best thing in the world. Obviously, Elon Musk is the most common among them. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a glaring wrap around an obvious scam.

Expoviex Scam

To begin with, Expoviex copies the design of numerous equivalent websites. There are quite a few examples, like Beetyx, Foyrex or Fegwex. They are completely undistinguishable in terms of graphic elements, with slight discrepancies in the website header. Other particulars, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Most likely, all these fraudulent websites are managed by the same gang of fraudsters.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Expoviex Scam Works?

Expoviex is a part of a large cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Rascals who stand behind it use numerous website designs, which still share the same 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 advanced 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 scam, criminals establish and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They generally target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign commences. Employing bots and paid advertisements (when feasible), scam actors boost the exposure of their deceptive activities to potential victims. And as I said, scammers do not disdain using generative AI for creating clips with the aforementioned celebrities that advertise their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, deceivers claim the bonus for every user who joins the service immediately.

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

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon clicking the promos, targets end up on a page filled with appealing offers. “Crypto starts with Expoviex”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Expoviex, “Start earning with Expoviex – they look rather credible. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, fraudsters say that getting the promoted bonus requires registration. And as nothing questionable happens at this point, unexperienced users happily keep on – especially since the bonus appears to be right behind the corner.

At this point, it is possible to skip the scam without any losses. Before you sign up using your personal data, swindrels 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 into signing up to get bonuses. And all the personal data needed for it – username, email, crypto wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Solely by gathering this data and selling it further into the Darknet, swindlers can earn quite a penny. Still, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, the promised bonus is not available for withdrawal right away. To make it at least usable for cryptocurrency purchases, you need to 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 operations require you to have capital on your account. In the case of Expoviex, 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 committed gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start participating on this site hoping to use all the transferred money and withdraw them.

This is where the problems start to surface. When comparing the actual 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 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 send you money. Though to make it look more realistic, they’ve developed a whole pack of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Usually, they repeat what Know Your Client regulations say, but for the Expoviex.com they are here only to make the withdrawal impossible.

By asking for 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 numerous other checks you should go through before getting your grand back. And every check will reveal more and more info of yours, which – you guessed it right – will be then marketed 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 Expoviex.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Expoviex 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 to Authorities. Your initial action should involve reporting the scam to local authorities responsible for addressing financial fraud. Additionally, reach out to wallet providers and engage with the technical support teams of social networks. This collective effort raises the bar for the scammers’ operations.
• Inform Your Inner Circle. Extend your impact by sharing information about the scam with your close friends. Similar to notifying authorities, this dissemination of details curbs the scammers’ potential to deceive.
• Document the Trail. Assemble a comprehensive record by capturing screenshots and archiving all relevant website-related data. This encompasses the website URL, screenshots of the main page, login interface, end-user license agreement (EULA), account top-up menu, and wallet addresses. These materials offer invaluable leads for authorities in their pursuit of the scammers.
• Explore Refund Possibilities. While cryptocurrency payments may not typically align with traditional bank refund policies, it’s worthwhile to explore potential refund avenues under specific circumstances. Maintain a positive outlook until you secure confirmation of the loss.
• Transform Loss into Insight. Shift your focus from the financial loss to gaining wisdom. Consider your loss as an investment in comprehending the tactics employed by crypto scam sites. Familiarize yourself with their distinctive traits, the methods they employ to entice individuals, and the extravagant pledges they make. This knowledge equips you to recognize and avoid future traps, minimizing the risk of enduring further 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 timeline of the fraud, its masters may get in touch with you with particular documents. Alternatively, they may propose you to set up “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to streamline access to your cryptocurrency funds. As we earlier figured out, these rascals have no plan of returning your money. So, what can these emails and browser extensions represent? You guessed – this is another side of the scam designed to entice you into deliberately installing destructive software onto your computer.

Both extensions and files included to emails can function as a shell for various malicious code. In this scenario, I foresee 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 significant. As stated, their conscience is of no concern, and their reputation is already severely tarnished. They have nothing to give up and strive to boost gains.

Frequently asked questions