We Investigated Gawaw: Legit or Scam? The Facts

Recently, Gawaw.com site appeared, promoting itself as a platform where you can securely store cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather credible proof that unmistakably indicates it is, in fact, a deceptive service.

Regardless of the promises of the most easy, trustworthy, and customer-centric service, Gawaw.com does not offer any of them. All this is just a gilded wrap around a blatant scam, which takes your money and data and never returns them. Any tales about bonuses, endorsement from celebrities etc are nowhere to be found as well.

Gawaw Scam Overview

Originally, Gawaw poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet platform with exceptionally low commission fees. Another notable marketing point for this platform is partnerships with celebrities that are known in the crypto world. Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Vitalii Buterin, Jeff Bezos – the site says about being supported by them. To make these claims look real, con actors use AI-generated videos with those celebs advertise the fraud as if it was the best thing in the world. For obvious reasons, Elon Musk is the most common choise for that. But, as I said in the introduction, all this is just a glaring wrap around an obvious scam.

Gawaw Scam

Initially, Gawaw repeats the design of multiple equivalent online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Yocex, Wenexy or Vonef. They are totally undistinguishable in terms of visual elements, with slight discrepancies in the webpage header. Other specific elements, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Most likely, all these deceptive sites are managed by the same gang of fraudsters.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Gawaw Scam Works?

Gawaw is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Swindlers who stand behind it use several website designs, which still share the similar 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 begin the fraud, criminals establish and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They primarily aim at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the marketing campaign begins. Employing bots and paid advertisements (when possible), fraud actors intensify the presence of their deceptive activities to possible victims. And as I said, fraudsters do not shy away using deepfake for creating videos with the aforementioned celebrities that advertise 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 Gawaw in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After clicking the promos, targets end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with Gawaw”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Gawaw, “Start earning with Gawaw – they look rather authoritative. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, fraudsters say that obtaining the promoted bonus requires registration. And as nothing questionable happens at this point, unaware users happily keep on – especially as the gift 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 info, rascals will not be able to 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 info needed for it – email, username, cryptocurrency wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Only 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, the claimed 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 sum of a bonus. And this is what starts the final stage of the scam.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Obviously, any cryptocurrency operations require you to have capital on your account. In the case of Gawaw, users are also compelled to top up to get the bonuses. And this is what creates most 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 trading on this site hoping to use all the transferred money and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the problems start to surface. When keeping an eye on the actual crypto wallet vs what the site says, you can spot 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

There’s no need to explain that swindlers have zero intentions to send you money. Though to make the fraud look more realistic, they’ve crafted a whole bunch of reasons to decline the wireout request. Usually, they repeat what KYC regulations 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 accept the loss 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 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 Gawaw.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Gawaw 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, fraudsters may reach out to you with specific documents. Alternatively, they may propose you to install “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to simplify access to your cryptocurrency savings. As we previously determined, these deceivers have no plan of giving back your money. So, what do these email messages and browser extensions represent? Correct – this is another element of the deceptive plan designed to throw you into willingly installing malicious applications onto your device.

Both add-ons and files included to emails can serve as a shell for different malware. In this scenario, I foresee the presence of spyware and stealers among other kinds of threats. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always significant. As stated, their morality is of negligible importance, and their reputation is already severely tarnished. They have nothing to give up and strive to maximize revenues.

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