We Looked Into Koinwex: Scam or Trustworthy? The Verdict

Recently, Koinwex.com website appeared, promoting itself as a place where you can securely keep cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather reliable proof that clearly reveals it is, actually, a fraudulent platform.

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

Koinwex Scam Overview

Originally, Koinwex poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet platform with remarkably low commission fees. Another notable selling point for this service is partnerships with celebrities that are known in the crypto world. Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Vitalii Buterin, Jeff Bezos – the site says about being supported by them. To make these claims look real, frauds employ deepfake videos where those celebrities advertise the scam as the best thing in the world. Obviously, Elon Musk is the most common among them. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a blatant wrap around an obvious scam.

Koinwex Scam

To begin with, Koinwex repeats the layout of multiple equivalent pages. There are quite a few examples, like Glidafin, Etherxspark or Zaglex. They are totally indistinguishable in terms of graphic elements, with minor discrepancies in the website header. Other details, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Most likely, all these scam online platforms are operated by a single gang of scammers.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Koinwex Scam Works?

Koinwex is a part of a significant 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 shared 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 legitimacy of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To initiate the scam, criminals establish and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They primarily aim at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign starts. Employing bots and sponsored promotions (when possible), scam actors boost the visibility of their scam activities to potential victims. And as I said, fraudsters do not shy away using deepfake for creating clips with the aforementioned celebrities that promote 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 Koinwex in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon following the ads, users end up on a page filled with appealing offers. “Crypto starts with Koinwex”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Koinwex, “Start earning with Koinwex – they look rather reliable. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, fraudsters say that claiming the promoted bonus requires registration. And as nothing concerning happens at this point, unexperienced users happily move on – especially as the gift appears to be right behind the corner.

At this point, it is possible to skip the scam without any losses. Before you sign up using your personal data, swindrels will not earn even a penny from your presence on the website.

Step 3: Data Gathering

This is where the main fraud action begins. As I just said, frauds bait folks into signing up for bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – username, email, crypto wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Exclusively by gathering this information 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 promised bonus right away. To make it at least usable for cryptocurrency purchases, the user should top up the account with the equivalent sum. At this point, the final stage of the scam kicks in.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Eventually, any crypto operations require you to have funds on your account. With Koinwex, 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 fraudulent site. By topping up the account, users hope to get the committed gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start trading on this site hoping to use all the deposited capital and withdraw them.

This is where the first obvious problems start to surface. When keeping an eye on 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 withdraw the money from your account, the scam is finally uncovered to the user.

Step 5: Escaping from Funds Withdrawal

Needless to say that fraudsters are naught on intentions to send you money. But to make it look more legitimate, they’ve elaborated a whole pack of reasons to decline the withdrawal request. Most of them repeat what KYC guidelines say, but in this case they are here exclusively to make the wireout impossible.

By asking for your personal data, frauds 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 would desperately need to undergo before getting your money back. And each of these checks will reveal 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 Koinwex.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

• Unsubstantiated Credibility. Koinwex employs fraudulent celebrity endorsements, often featuring names like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mr. Beast, and Mark Zuckerberg. These false claims extend to fictitious partnerships with reputable entities like Coinbase, Binance, or MetaMask, despite the absence of genuine connections.
• Implausible Earnings Claims. Promising remarkable returns of 50-100-200%, Koinwex exploits the longing for quick profits. However, such gains are unrealistic within the volatile cryptocurrency landscape, unequivocally identifying Koinwex as a scam.
• Dubious Corporate Information. Koinwex arouses suspicion by providing inadequate documentation about ownership, location, and registration. Furthermore, the lack of legitimate contact information and the recent registration of domain and social media profiles deepen skepticism.
• Exclusive Cryptocurrency Payments. Koinwex.com solely accepts payments in cryptocurrencies, refraining from traditional bank transfers and other payment methods. This approach not only shrouds the company’s identity but also prevents the possibility of requesting refunds.
• Potential Pyramid Scheme. The scam relies on a Ponzi-like referral structure disseminated through social media. Nevertheless, only initial participants profit, often at the expense of funds brought in by subsequent members.
• Groundless Hype Tactics. Koinwex utilizes fabricated claims about non-existent events, such as securing contracts with Coinbase or receiving endorsements from Elon Musk. This manipulative strategy aims to foster belief in money returns and encourages individuals to top up their accounts again.

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Koinwex 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, its masters may contact you with particular files. Alternatively, they may suggest you to set up “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your crypto savings. As we earlier determined, these scammers have no intent of returning your funds. So, what can these emails and browser extensions represent? You guessed it right – that is another component of the deceptive plan designed to entice you into deliberately running destructive software onto your device.

Both plugins and attachments added to emails can act as a shell for diverse malware. In this scenario, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among other kinds of malware. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the chance is always existent. As noted, their conscience is of negligible importance, and their dignity is already neck deep in mud. They have no scruples to give up and aim to boost profits.

Frequently asked questions