Investigating Kelenex: Legit or Scam? The Truth Revealed

Recently, Kelenex.com website popped up, promoting itself as a platform where you can safely store cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather credible supporting information that clearly indicates it is, in truth, a scam service.

Regardless of the promises of the most user-friendly, trustworthy, and client-friendly service, Kelenex.com does not fulfill any of them. In fact, all this is just a golden wrap around a dirty scam, which takes your money and never returns them. Any stories about bonuses, endorsement from celebrities etc are nowhere to be found as well.

Kelenex Scam Overview

Originally, Kelenex poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with outstandingly low commission fees. Another highlighted marketing point for this service is backing from celebrities that are known in the crypto world. Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Vitalii Buterin, Jeff Bezos – the site claims having significant support from them. To make these claims look real, con actors use AI-generated videos where those celebrities advertise the fake crypto service as if it was the best thing in the world. Obviously, Elon Musk is the most common among them. But, as I said in the introduction, all this is just a vivid wrap around a transparent scam.

Kelenex Scam

Initially, Kelenex repeats the appearance of numerous equivalent online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Excoinlite, Tewiox or Cetobit. They are totally indistinguishable in terms of visual elements, with minor discrepancies in the website header. Other details, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are the same. Probably, all these deceptive sites are led by a single group of frauds.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Kelenex Scam Works?

Kelenex 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 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 validity of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To start the fraud, criminals set up and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They mainly aim at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the marketing campaign begins. Employing bots and sponsored promotions (when achievable), fraud actors increase the presence of their fraudulent activities to potential victims. And as I said, scammers do not disdain using deepfake for creating videos with the mentioned celebs that advertise their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, frauds claim the bonus for every user who joins the service immediately.

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

Users receive an incentive to enroll, enticed by the commitment of getting cryptocurrency benefits valued at hundreds of dollars, all free of charge. To augment the appeal of the offer, fake claims of cooperation with a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these claims are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After following the promotions, targets end up on a page filled with attractive offers. “Crypto starts with Kelenex”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Kelenex, “Start earning with Kelenex – they look rather authoritative. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, fraudsters say that unlocking the promised bonus requires registration. And since nothing suspicious happens at this point, uninformed users happily keep on – especially as the reward appears to be right behind the corner.

At this point, it is possible to steer away from the scam without any losses. Before you sign up using your personal information, rascals will not 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 mentioned, frauds bait folks for registration with bonuses. And all the personal info needed for it – username, email, cryptocurrency wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Only by gathering this information and selling it further into the Darknet, fraudsters can earn quite a penny. Still, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, the alleged bonus is not available for withdrawal 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

Obviously, any cryptocurrency purchases require you to have capital on your account. In the case of Kelenex, users are also coerced 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 pledged 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 victim notices the issues. When comparing 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 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 swindlers have 0 intentions to return your money. But to make it look more legitimate, they’ve elaborated a whole bunch of reasons to decline the wireout request. Usually, they repeat what Know Your Client regulations say, but in this case they are here exclusively to make the wireout 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 numerous other checks you should go through before getting your funds back. And every check will uncover more and more info of yours, 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 Kelenex.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

• False Celebrity Sponsorship. Kelenex 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. Kelenex.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. Kelenex 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. Kelenex.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%, Kelenex preys on the desire for quick profits. Yet, the volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market makes such gains highly unlikely, definitively labeling Kelenex as a scam.

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Kelenex 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 course of the fraud, rascals may contact you with particular documents. Alternatively, they may propose you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to streamline access to your crypto savings. As we already determined, these rascals have no plan of restoring your funds. So, what do these emails and browser extensions represent? Correct – that is another side of the fraudulent scheme designed to entice you into willingly running destructive software onto your computer.

Both plugins and files attached to email messages can function as a carrier for diverse malware. In this situation, I foresee the presence of spyware and stealers among all kinds of malicious programs. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the probability is always significant. As noted, their morality is of negligible importance, and their reputation is already severely tarnished. They have no principles to give up and aim to maximize gains.

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