We Investigated Gexchain: Legit or Scam? The Facts

Recently, Gexchain.com site appeared, promoting itself as a platform where you can safely store cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather reliable evidence that unmistakably confirms it is, in truth, a fraudulent site.

Despite the promises of the most convenient, reliable, and customer-centric service, Gexchain.com does not offer any of them. In fact, all this is just a golden wrap around a dirty scam, which steals your money and never returns them. Any stories about bonuses, sponsorship from celebrities etc are non-existent as well.

Gexchain Scam Overview

Originally, Gexchain poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet service with outstandingly low commission fees. Another bright marketing point for this site is backing from celebrities that are known as crypto activists. Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Vitalii Buterin, Jeff Bezos – the site says about being supported by them. To make these claims look real, frauds use deepfake videos with those celebs promote the scam as if it was the best thing in the world. Obviously, Elon Musk is the most common choise for that. But, as I said in the introduction, all this is just a vivid wrap around a transparent scam.

Gexchain Scam

First and foremost, Gexchain repeats the design of multiple equivalent websites. There are quite a few examples, like Coinxbliss, Bitnase or Cytergo. They are totally identical in terms of visual elements, with minor discrepancies in the webpage header. Other details, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Probably, all these deceptive online platforms are operated by a single team of frauds.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Gexchain Scam Works?

Gexchain is a part of a significant cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Rascals who stand behind it use various 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 validity 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 mainly target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign starts. Employing bots and sponsored promotions (when achievable), fraud actors increase the exposure of their scam activities to possible victims. And as I said, crooks do not shy away using generative AI for creating videos with the mentioned celebrities that advertise their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, deceivers claim the bonus for every user who registers the service immediately.

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

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

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

This is the last stage when it is possible to skip the scam without any losses. Before you register using your personal info, rascals will not be able to 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, frauds bait folks into registration for bonuses. And all the personal info needed for it – email, username, crypto wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Exclusively 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 to use right away. To make it at least usable for cryptocurrency purchases, you need to top up the account with the equivalent sum. And this is what initiates the final stage of the scam.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Obviously, any crypto operations require you to have funds on your account. With Gexchain, users are also coerced to top up to claim the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates the majority of the cash flow to this fraudulent website. By topping up the account, users hope to get the committed gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start engaging on this website hoping to use all the deposited funds and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the first obvious issues start to surface. When keeping an eye on the real crypto wallet vs what the website says, you can notice that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to pull out the money from your account, the scam is finally uncovered to the user.

Step 5: Escaping from Funds Withdrawal

Needless to say that scoundrels are naught on intentions to return your money. But to make the denial look more realistic, they’ve developed a whole pack of reasons to decline the withdrawal request. Most of them repeat what KYC guidelines say, but for the Gexchain.com they are here exclusively to make the withdrawal impossible.

By asking for your personal info, scammers just stall hoping for you to accept the loss and stop contacting them. If you don’t – well, there are a dozen other checks you should go through before getting your funds back. And every check 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 Gexchain.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Gexchain 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 contact you with particular files. Alternatively, they may offer you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to simplify access to your crypto assets. As we already determined, these scoundrels have no plan of giving back your funds. So, what can these email messages and browser add-ons represent? You guessed it right – this is another component of the fraudulent scheme designed to throw you into deliberately installing harmful applications onto your computer.

Both extensions and files included to emails can function as a carrier for various malicious software. In this situation, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among all types of threats. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always above zero. As noted, their morality is of no concern, and their dignity is already deeply compromised. They have no scruples to give up and strive to maximize profits.

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