We Looked at the Evidence: Is Hobitax Legit or Scam?

Recently, Hobitax.com service surfaced, promoting itself as a platform to store cryptocurrency and other assets securely. I managed to gather credible evidence that clearly indicates it is, in truth, a fraudulent site.

Despite the promises of the most convenient, trustworthy, and client-friendly service, Hobitax.com does not offer any of them. In fact, all this is just a golden wrap around a clear scam, which steals your funds and never returns them. Any tales about gifts, endorsement from celebrities etc are absent as well.

Hobitax Scam Overview

Originally, Hobitax poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet platform with remarkably low commission fees. Another notable selling point for this platform is partnerships with celebrities that are known as crypto activists. Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Vitalii Buterin, Jeff Bezos – the site claims having significant support from them. To make these claims look real, rascals use AI-generated videos where those celebrities promote the fraud as if it was the best thing in the world. For known reasons, Elon Musk is the most common among them. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a glaring wrap around a transparent scam.

Hobitax Scam

To begin with, Hobitax repeats the layout of multiple similar online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Mono, Royal or Tradeofix. They are entirely undistinguishable in terms of visual elements, with slight discrepancies in the site header. Other specific elements, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Presumably, all these fraudulent sites are managed by a single gang of swindrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Hobitax Scam Works?

Hobitax is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Scammers who stand behind it use numerous website designs, which still share the similar overall layout. Another mutual 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 start the fraud, criminals create and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They primarily focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the marketing campaign commences. Employing bots and paid advertisements (when achievable), fraud actors increase the visibility of their scam activities to possible victims. And as I said, crooks do not shy away using generative AI for creating videos with the aforementioned celebs that promote their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, swindlers claim the bonus for every user who registers the service immediately.

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

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After following the ads, victims end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with Hobitax”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Hobitax, “Start earning with Hobitax – they look rather credible. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, scammers say that claiming the promised bonus requires registration. And since nothing questionable happens at this point, unexperienced users happily move on – especially since the gift appears to be right behind the corner.

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

Step 3: Data Gathering

This is the starting poing of the main fraud action. As I just mentioned, frauds bait folks into signing up to get bonuses. And all the personal info needed for it – email, username, cryptocurrency 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. Nonetheless, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, you cannot use the claimed bonus right away. To make at least crypto purchases on the platform with it, the user should top up the account with the equivalent sum. And this is what starts the final step of the scam.

Step 4: Requesting funds

It is obvious that any cryptocurrency operations require having funds on your account. With Hobitax, users are also coerced to top up to use the bonuses. And this is what creates the majority of the money flow to this fraudulent site. By topping up the account, users hope to get the committed gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start participating on this website hoping to use all the credited capital and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the victim notices the issues. When comparing 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 withdraw the capital from your account, the scam is finally uncovered to the user.

Step 5: Escaping from Funds Withdrawal

Needless to say that swindlers are naught on intentions to return your money. But to make the fraud look more legitimate, they’ve elaborated a whole pack of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Usually, they repeat what Know Your Client requirements say, but for the Hobitax.com they are here only to make the withdrawal impossible.

By asking for your personal data, 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 money back. And each of these checks 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 Hobitax.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Hobitax 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 duration of the fraud, rascals may contact you with specific documents. Alternatively, they may suggest you to set up “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to simplify access to your crypto funds. As we previously figured out, these scoundrels have no plan of giving back your funds. So, what do these email messages and browser plugins represent? You guessed it right – this is another element of the fraudulent scheme designed to entice you into deliberately installing malicious software onto your device.

Both add-ons and files added to email messages can function as a carrier for different malware. In this scenario, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among all types of threats. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always greater than zero. As previously mentioned, their conscience is of little concern, and their dignity is already neck deep in mud. They have no principles to lose and aim to boost profits.

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