The IdealTrading Scam – Don’t Become the Next Victim

Recently, Idealtrading.pro service popped up, promoting itself as a platform to keep cryptocurrency and other assets securely. I managed to gather reliable evidence that clearly confirms it is, in fact, a deceptive service.

Regardless of the promises of the most easy, dependable, and client-friendly service, Idealtrading.pro does not follow any of them. In fact, all this is just a shiny wrap around a clear scam, which steals your money and data and never gives them back. Any stories about bonuses, sponsorship from celebrities etc are absent as well.

IdealTrading Scam Overview

Originally, IdealTrading poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with exceptionally low commission fees. Another notable marketing point for this platform is partnerships with celebrities that are known in the crypto world. Vitalii Buterin (Ethereum creator), Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet – the site claims having significant support from them. To make these claims look more realistic, rascals employ AI-generated videos with those celebs advertise the fraud as the best thing in the world. For obvious reasons, Elon Musk is the most common among them. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a blatant wrap around an obvious scam.

IdealTrading Scam

Initially, IdealTrading repeats the layout of numerous equivalent pages. There are quite a few examples, like Gumeex, Dextersminer or Kuex. They are completely undistinguishable in terms of graphic elements, with slight discrepancies in the webpage header. Other particulars, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are identical. Probably, all these fraudulent sites are operated by the same team of swindrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the IdealTrading Scam Works?

IdealTrading is a part of a large cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating vividly in 2023. Scammers who stand behind it use various website designs, which still share the same 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 advanced psychological tricks that make the user believe in the legitimacy of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To begin the deceptive scheme, criminals establish and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They primarily focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign commences. Using bots and paid promotions (when possible), scam actors intensify the visibility of their fraudulent activities to potential victims. And as I said, crooks do not disdain using generative AI for creating videos with the aforementioned 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 IdealTrading in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users get a stimulus to register, attracted by the promise of getting crypto benefits valued at thousands of dollars, all free of charge. To enhance the appeal of the offer, false claims of sponsorship by a celebrity are added. As you may guess, these claims are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After clicking the promotions, targets end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with IdealTrading”, “Your crypto savings are secured with IdealTrading, “Start earning with IdealTrading – they look rather reliable. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, crooks say that getting the promised bonus requires registration. And since nothing questionable happens at this point, unexperienced users happily proceed – especially since the bonus 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 info, rascals 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, frauds bait folks into signing up to get bonuses. And all the personal data needed for it – email, username, crypto wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Solely 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 claimed bonus right away. To make at least cryptocurrency purchases on the platform with it, the user should top up the account with the equivalent sum. At this point, the final stage of the scam begins.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Obviously, any crypto operations require you to have money on your account. In the case of IdealTrading, users are also forced to top up to get the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates the majority 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 website hoping to use all the transferred funds and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the first obvious problems start to surface. When keeping an eye on the actual crypto wallet vs what the website says, you can spot that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to pull out the funds 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 send you money. Though to make the fraud look more realistic, they’ve elaborated a whole pack of reasons to decline the wireout request. Most of them repeat what KYC guidelines say, but in this case they are here exclusively to make the withdrawal impossible.

By requesting your personal data, scammers just stall hoping for you to understand that you’ve been scammed and stop contacting them. If you don’t – well, there are multiple other checks you would desperately need to undergo before getting your funds back. And every check will share more and more info of yours, 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 Idealtrading.pro. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with IdealTrading 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.

• Secure Your Actions. Begin by promptly reporting the scam to appropriate local authorities tasked with handling financial fraud. Notify wallet providers and engage with social networks’ technical support teams. By taking these measures, you contribute to making the scammers’ operations significantly more difficult.
• Expand Awareness. Extend your efforts by sharing the scam information with your close friends. This action has a parallel effect to reporting to the authorities, as disseminating details about fraudulent crypto services reduces the potential victims they can deceive.
• Gather Evidence. Preserve comprehensive evidence by capturing screenshots and saving all pertinent data linked to the deceptive website. Collect the URL, screenshots of the main page, login interface, end-user license agreement (EULA), account top-up menu, and wallet addresses. These materials could prove invaluable for authorities in their pursuit of the scammers.
• Explore Refund Possibilities. While cryptocurrency payments generally fall outside the scope of refund policies within most banks, it’s worth investigating the potential for a refund in specific circumstances. Maintain optimism until you definitively confirm the loss.
• Convert Mistake into Wisdom. Transform your financial setback into a valuable learning experience. Treat your loss as an investment in understanding the tactics of crypto scam sites. Familiarize yourself with their key characteristics, how they lure individuals, and the grandiose promises they make. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll be well-equipped to recognize and avoid falling into future traps without incurring further losses.

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 scam, scoundrels may reach out to you with specific files. Alternatively, they may offer you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to simplify access to your crypto funds. As we previously figured out, these deceivers have no plan of restoring your capital. So, what can these email messages and browser add-ons represent? You guessed – that is another element of the fraudulent scheme designed to entice you into willingly running harmful programs onto your system.

Both add-ons and attachments included to emails can function as a carrier for various malicious code. In this case, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among all kinds of malware. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always existent. As previously mentioned, their conscience is of little concern, and their reputation is already neck deep in mud. They have no principles to lose and strive to boost profits.

Frequently asked questions