The Truth About Gobenex: Legit or Scam? Our Review

Recently, Gobenex.com service appeared, promoting itself as a place to store cryptocurrency and other assets securely. I managed to gather reliable proof that unmistakably confirms it is, in truth, a fraudulent site.

Despite the promises of the most user-friendly, reliable, and customer-centric service, Gobenex.com does not follow any of them. All this is just a golden wrap around a blatant scam, which takes your money and never returns them. Any tales about bonuses, backing from celebrities etc are non-existent as well.

Gobenex Scam Overview

Originally, Gobenex poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet service with exceptionally low commission fees. Another bright selling point for this service is backing from celebrities that have relation to the crypto world. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Vitalii Buterin, Warren Buffet – the site says about being supported by them. To make these claims look more realistic, con actors employ AI-generated videos where those celebrities advertise the scam 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.

Gobenex Scam

To begin with, Gobenex copies the layout of multiple similar websites. There are quite a few examples, like X, Teslyox or Somenex. They are entirely indistinguishable in terms of visual elements, with minor discrepancies in the website header. Other specific elements, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are matching. Most likely, all these fraudulent websites are managed by the same group of swindrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Gobenex Scam Works?

Gobenex is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating vividly in 2023. Scammers who stand behind it use various website designs, which still share the identical 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 complex 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 initiate the fraud, criminals set up and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They primarily target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign begins. Utilizing bots and sponsored ads (when feasible), fraud actors intensify the presence of their deceptive activities to possible victims. And as I said, crooks do not disdain using generative AI for creating clips with the aforementioned celebrities that promote 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 Gobenex in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users get a stimulus to sign up, drawn by the commitment of receiving cryptocurrency benefits valued at hundreds of dollars, all for free. To augment the appeal of the offer, false claims of cooperation with a celebrity are added. As you may guess, these assertions are entirely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After clicking the ads, victims end up on a page filled with appealing offers. “Crypto starts with Gobenex”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Gobenex, “Start earning with Gobenex – they look rather authoritative. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, crooks say that getting the pledged bonus requires registration. And since nothing suspicious happens at this point, uninformed users happily proceed – especially as the reward appears to be right behind the corner.

At this point, it is possible to get away from the scam without any losses. Before you register using your personal info, swindrels will not 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 mentioned, scammers bait folks for registration with bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – email, username, cryptocurrency wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Only 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, you cannot use the promised bonus right away. To make at least crypto 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 kicks in.

Step 4: Requesting funds

It is obvious that any crypto purchases require you to have funds on your account. In the case of Gobenex, users are also forced to top up to claim the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates most of the money flow to this scam website. By topping up the account, users hope to get the promised gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start participating on this site hoping to use all the credited capital and withdraw them.

This is where the first obvious problems start to surface. When comparing the real crypto wallet vs what the website says, you can observe 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 zero intentions to send you money. But to make it look more legitimate, they’ve crafted a whole bunch of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Usually, they repeat what Know Your Client regulations say, but in this case they are here only to make the withdrawal 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 a dozen other checks you would desperately need to undergo before getting your money back. And every check will uncover more and more information, 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 Gobenex.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

• False Celebrity Sponsorship. Gobenex often resorts to fake endorsements from celebrities such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mr. Beast, and Mark Zuckerberg. This fraudulent tactic extends to claiming partnerships with reputable companies like Coinbase, Binance, or MetaMask, despite lacking any genuine affiliations.
• Cryptocurrency-Only Payments. Gobenex.com exclusively accepts payments in cryptocurrencies, rejecting traditional bank transfers and other methods. This approach not only masks the company’s identity but also eliminates the possibility of seeking refunds.
• Dubious Company Information. Gobenex raises suspicion by withholding essential ownership, location, and registration details. Furthermore, the absence of legitimate contact information and the recent establishment of domain and social media pages intensify skepticism.
• Unsubstantiated Hype. Gobenex.com employs groundless hype tactics, fabricating events like securing contracts with Coinbase or receiving endorsements from Elon Musk. These manipulative techniques aim to instill false confidence and encourage further investments.
• Potential Pyramid Scheme. The scam relies on a structure resembling a Ponzi scheme, leveraging a referral system spread through social media. However, only initial participants benefit, often at the expense of subsequent investors.
• Implausible Claims. Promising returns of 50-100-200%, Gobenex preys on the desire for quick profits. Yet, the volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market makes such gains highly unlikely, definitively labeling Gobenex as a scam.

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Gobenex 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 course of the scam, its masters may reach out to you with specific files. Alternatively, they may propose you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your crypto assets. As we already determined, these rascals have no intention of giving back your capital. So, what can these emails and browser extensions represent? Correct – this is another side of the scam designed to entice you into willingly installing malicious programs onto your system.

Both add-ons and files included to emails can function as a shell for different malware. In this case, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among other forms of threats. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the chance is always significant. As stated, their ethics is of little concern, and their reputation is already neck deep in mud. They have no scruples to give up and aim to boost gains.

Frequently asked questions