Recently, Lunawexy.com service appeared, promoting itself as a place where you can securely keep cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather credible evidence that unmistakably confirms it is, in fact, a deceptive platform.
Despite the promises of the most convenient, reliable, and customer-centric service, Lunawexy.com does not fulfill any of them. In fact, all this is just a gilded wrap around a clear scam, which steals your money and never returns them. Any stories about bonuses, backing from celebrities etc are absent as well.
Lunawexy Scam Overview
Originally, Lunawexy poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with exceptionally low commission fees. Another bright 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 claims having significant support from them. To make these claims look more realistic, rascals employ deepfake videos with those celebs promote the fake crypto service as if it was 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 glaring wrap around a transparent scam.
First and foremost, Lunawexy repeats the layout of many similar pages. There are quite a few examples, like Vinelax, Winetfs or Xelotix. They are entirely indistinguishable in terms of graphic elements, with minor discrepancies in the webpage header. Other details, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are the same. Probably, all these deceptive websites are operated by the same team of scammers.
Cryptocurrency Scam Summary
Website | Lunawexy.com |
Hosting | AS13335 Cloudflare, Inc. United States, San Francisco |
IP Address | 172.67.154.63 |
Threat Type | Scam/Fraud |
Scam Type | Fraudulent offers of cryptocurrency services |
How the Lunawexy Scam Works?
Lunawexy is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Rascals who stand behind it use several website designs, which still share the identical 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 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 start the fraud, criminals create and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They primarily aim at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign commences. Using bots and paid advertisements (when achievable), scam actors boost the visibility of their deceptive activities to potential victims. And as I said, crooks do not disdain using generative AI for creating clips with the mentioned celebrities that promote their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, frauds claim the bonus for every user who registers the service immediately.
Users receive a stimulus to sign up, drawn by the commitment of obtaining cryptocurrency benefits valued at thousands of dollars, all free of charge. To augment the attractiveness of the offer, fake suggestions of cooperation with a celebrity are added. As you may guess, these claims are entirely baseless.
Step 2: Gaining Traffic
After clicking the promos, users end up on a page filled with appealing offers. “Crypto starts with Lunawexy”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Lunawexy, “Start earning with Lunawexy – they look rather reliable. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, scammers say that getting the promoted bonus requires registration. And as nothing suspicious happens at this point, unaware 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 info, swindrels 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 registration to get bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – username, email, cryptocurrency wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Exclusively by gathering this info 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 sum of a bonus. And this is what initiates the final stage of the scam.
Step 4: Requesting funds
Obviously, any cryptocurrency purchases require you to have funds on your account. In the case of Lunawexy, users are also forced to top up to use the bonuses. And these top ups 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 site hoping to use all the deposited funds and withdraw them.
This is where the issues start to surface. When comparing the real cryptocurrency wallet vs what the website says, you can observe that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to withdraw 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 are naught on intentions to give your money back. But to make the fraud look more legitimate, they’ve elaborated a whole pack of reasons to decline the wireout request. Most of them repeat what KYC guidelines say, but for the Lunawexy.com they are here only to make the withdrawal impossible.
By requesting 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 funds back. And every check will share 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 Lunawexy.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.
- Unsubstantiated Credibility. Lunawexy 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%, Lunawexy exploits the longing for quick profits. However, such gains are unrealistic within the volatile cryptocurrency landscape, unequivocally identifying Lunawexy as a scam.
- Dubious Corporate Information. Lunawexy 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. Lunawexy.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. Lunawexy 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 Lunawexy 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 timeline of the fraud, its actors may get in touch with you with specific files. Alternatively, they may propose you to install “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your crypto assets. As we previously figured out, these scoundrels have no intent of restoring your funds. So, what do these emails and browser extensions represent? Correct – this is another component of the scam designed to throw you into deliberately running harmful applications onto your device.
Both extensions and files included to emails can act as a shell for various malicious software. In this situation, I foresee the presence of spyware and stealers among all kinds of threats. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always existent. As stated, their ethics is of negligible importance, and their dignity is already severely tarnished. They have nothing to give up and aim to boost revenues.
Remove spyware with Gridinsoft Anti-Malware
We have also been using this software on our systems ever since, and it has always been successful in detecting viruses. It has blocked the most common malicious programs as shown from our tests with the software, and we assure you that it can remove spyware as well as other malware hiding on your computer.
To use Gridinsoft for remove malicious threats, follow the steps below:
1. Begin by downloading Gridinsoft Anti-Malware, accessible via the blue button below or directly from the official website gridinsoft.com.
2.Once the Gridinsoft setup file (setup-gridinsoft-fix.exe) is downloaded, execute it by clicking on the file.
3.Follow the installation setup wizard's instructions diligently.
4. Access the "Scan Tab" on the application's start screen and launch a comprehensive "Full Scan" to examine your entire computer. This inclusive scan encompasses the memory, startup items, the registry, services, drivers, and all files, ensuring that it detects malware hidden in all possible locations.
Be patient, as the scan duration depends on the number of files and your computer's hardware capabilities. Use this time to relax or attend to other tasks.
5. Upon completion, Anti-Malware will present a detailed report containing all the detected malicious items and threats on your PC.
6. Select all the identified items from the report and confidently click the "Clean Now" button. This action will safely remove the malicious files from your computer, transferring them to the secure quarantine zone of the anti-malware program to prevent any further harmful actions.
8. If prompted, restart your computer to finalize the full system scan procedure. This step is crucial to ensure thorough removal of any remaining threats. After the restart, Gridinsoft Anti-Malware will open and display a message confirming the completion of the scan.
Remember Gridinsoft offers a 6-day free trial. This means you can take advantage of the trial period at no cost to experience the full benefits of the software and prevent any future malware infections on your system. Embrace this opportunity to fortify your computer's security without any financial commitment.
Frequently asked questions
The vast majority of information posted on the Lunawexy site is false. It is either fabricated, or a manipulation that misses the context of mentioned events. However, things like quotes or other interactive elements related to current prices may be trustworthy. But I would rather avoid using them as a primary source of information.
No, there is no legitimate information on the Lunawexy site. The operators of this site use fabricated details and deceptive tactics to create an appearance of credibility, such as appealing visuals and claims of being a licensed company. However, these claims are false, and the site is part of a larger network of interconnected crypto scam sites designed to defraud victims. The scammers manipulate users into providing sensitive personal information and making deposits, ultimately leading to the loss of funds.
Unfortunately, recovering funds lost to a scam like Lunawexy can be extremely challenging, if not impossible. Scammers often operate from obscure locations and use various tactics to cover their tracks, making it difficult to trace or retrieve the stolen funds. In many cases, these scams are designed to exploit victims and disappear once they have obtained the money.
Spotting crypto trading scams requires vigilance and a critical eye. Here are some tips to help you identify potential crypto trading scams in the future:
- Too Good to Be True Promises. Be cautious of offers that promise unrealistically high returns or guaranteed profits. If an investment opportunity sounds too good to be true, it likely is.
- Pressure to Act Quickly. Scammers often use tactics like creating a sense of urgency to pressure you into making quick decisions. Legitimate investments allow you time to research and consider your options.
- Lack of Regulation or Licensing. Check if the platform or service is regulated and licensed by relevant authorities. Scammers often operate without proper authorization.
- Social Proof and Celebrity Endorsements: Be skeptical of endorsements from celebrities or public figures. Scammers often fabricate endorsements to gain credibility.
- Check for Reviews and Feedback: Look for independent reviews and feedback from other traders. Scammers may fabricate positive reviews, but negative reviews can provide valuable insights.
If you have become a victim of a Lunawexy or similar crypto trading scam, it’s important to take immediate action to minimize further damage and increase the chances of recovering your losses. Here’s what you should do:
- Cease Communication. If you realize that you’ve been scammed, stop all communication with the scammers. Do not respond to their emails, messages, or calls.
- Document Everything. Gather and preserve all relevant information, including emails, screenshots, transaction records, and any communication you had with the scammers. This documentation will be crucial for reporting the scam and seeking assistance.
- Report to Authorities. File a report with your local law enforcement agency and any relevant regulatory authorities in your country. Provide them with all the evidence you have gathered. This helps initiate investigations and raises awareness about the scam.
- Contact Financial Institutions. If you made any payments or deposits using your credit card or bank account, contact your financial institution immediately. They may be able to help you with disputing transactions or initiating a chargeback.
- Seek Legal Advice. Consult with a legal professional who specializes in fraud or financial matters. They can provide advice on potential legal actions you can take to recover your funds.
- Notify Cryptocurrency Exchanges. If you used a cryptocurrency exchange to make transactions related to the scam, notify the exchange about the fraudulent activity. They may be able to assist you in some cases.
- Monitor Your Accounts. Keep a close eye on your financial and online accounts for any suspicious activity. Change passwords and enable two-factor authentication wherever possible.