We Looked Into Hubicoin: Scam or Trustworthy? The Verdict

Recently, Hubicoin.com site surfaced, promoting itself as a platform where you can securely keep cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather credible evidence that clearly indicates it is, actually, a scam site.

Despite the promises of the most easy, dependable, and client-friendly service, Hubicoin.com does not offer any of them. In fact, all this is just a golden wrap around a dirty scam, which takes your money and data and never returns them. Any tales about bonuses, backing from celebrities etc are nowhere to be found as well.

Hubicoin Scam Overview

Originally, Hubicoin poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with exceptionally low commission fees. Another highlighted selling point for this service is backing from celebrities that have relation to the crypto world. Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Vitalii Buterin, Jeff Bezos – the site claims having significant support from them. To make these claims look more realistic, frauds use AI-generated videos where those celebrities advertise the fraud as the best thing in the world. For known reasons, Elon Musk is the most common choise for that. But, as I said in the introduction, all this is just a blatant wrap around an obvious scam.

Hubicoin Scam

First and foremost, Hubicoin repeats the appearance of multiple similar online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Seleru, Waflub or Bitxmust. They are totally identical in terms of visual elements, with small discrepancies in the website header. Other specific elements, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Presumably, all these deceptive online platforms are led by the same team of frauds.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Hubicoin Scam Works?

Hubicoin is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Rascals 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 begin the scam, criminals establish and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They generally aim at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign begins. Using bots and paid advertisements (when feasible), fraud actors increase the exposure of their deceptive activities to potential victims. And as I said, crooks do not shy away using deepfake for creating clips with the aforementioned celebs 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 Hubicoin in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After following the ads, users end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with Hubicoin”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Hubicoin, “Start earning with Hubicoin – they look rather reliable. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, scammers say that claiming the promoted bonus requires registration. And as nothing suspicious happens at this point, uninformed users happily proceed – especially as the reward 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, crooks will not 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 said, scammers bait folks into signing up to get bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – email, username, cryptocurrency wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Exclusively by gathering this info and selling it further into the Darknet, fraudsters 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 it at least usable for cryptocurrency purchases, you need to top up the account with the sum of a bonus. At this point, the final stage of the scam kicks in.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Obviously, any cryptocurrency operations require having money on your account. In the case of Hubicoin, users are also compelled to top up to use the bonuses. And this is what creates most of the money flow to this scam site. By topping up the account, users hope to get the promised gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start engaging on this website hoping to use all the transferred funds and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the first obvious issues start to surface. When keeping an eye on the actual cryptocurrency 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 capital 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 0 intentions to give your money back. Though to make the denial look more realistic, they’ve elaborated a whole bunch of reasons to decline the wireout request. Most of them repeat what KYC regulations say, but for the Hubicoin.com they are here only to make the withdrawal impossible.

By requesting your personal info, scammers 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 each of these checks will reveal more and more information, 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 Hubicoin.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Hubicoin 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 course of the scam, its masters may contact you with particular documents. Alternatively, they may propose you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to simplify access to your crypto savings. As we previously figured out, these scoundrels have no plan of giving back your funds. So, what do these email messages and browser extensions represent? You guessed it right – this is another component of the deceptive plan designed to throw you into deliberately installing malicious programs onto your computer.

Both add-ons and attachments attached to email messages can serve as a shell for various malicious code. In this situation, I anticipate the presence of spyware and stealers among all forms of threats. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the probability is always existent. As stated, their morality is of negligible importance, and their dignity is already neck deep in mud. They have no principles to lose and strive to maximize revenues.

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