We Looked Into Menolax: Scam or Trustworthy? The Verdict

Recently, Menolax.com service appeared, promoting itself as a platform where you can securely store cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather reliable evidence that clearly reveals it is, in fact, a scam site.

Regardless of the promises of the most user-friendly, reliable, and customer-centric service, Menolax.com does not offer any of them. All this is just a golden wrap around a blatant scam, which takes your funds and never returns them. Any stories about gifts, sponsorship from celebrities etc are nowhere to be found as well.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

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Menolax Scam Overview

Originally, Menolax poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet service with outstandingly low commission fees. Another notable selling point for this platform is partnerships with celebrities that have relation to 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, rascals employ deepfake videos with those celebs advertise the fake crypto service as the best thing in the world. Obviously, Elon Musk is the most common choise for that. But, as I said in the introduction, all this is just a vivid wrap around an obvious scam.

Menolax Scam

First and foremost, Menolax repeats the appearance of multiple similar online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Mowcoin, Usweu or Imqf. They are totally identical in terms of graphic elements, with minor discrepancies in the website header. Other details, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are identical. Most likely, all these fraudulent online platforms are operated by the same team of fraudsters.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Menolax Scam Works?

Menolax is a part of a significant cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating vividly in 2023. Swindlers who stand behind it use several website designs, which still share the identical overall layout. Another mutual 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 validity of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To initiate the fraud, criminals establish and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They generally target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the marketing campaign commences. Utilizing bots and paid advertisements (when achievable), fraud actors boost the presence of their scam activities to possible victims. And as I said, crooks 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 registers the service immediately.

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

Users get a stimulus to enroll, enticed by the assurance of obtaining crypto rewards valued at thousands of dollars, all for free. To enhance the attractiveness 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

Upon following the ads, targets end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with Menolax”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Menolax, “Start earning with Menolax – they look rather credible. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, fraudsters say that unlocking the promoted bonus requires registration. And since nothing questionable happens at this point, uninformed users happily proceed – especially since 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 sign up using your personal info, rascals will not be able to 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, deceivers bait folks for registration with bonuses. And all the personal data needed for it – username, email, cryptocurrency wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Solely by gathering this information and selling it further into the Darknet, crooks can earn quite a penny. Still, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, you cannot use the promised 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. At this point, the final stage of the scam kicks in.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Eventually, any cryptocurrency purchases require having capital on your account. With Menolax, users are also compelled to top up to get 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 engaging on this site hoping to use all the deposited funds and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the victim notices the issues. When keeping an eye on the actual 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

Needless to say that fraudsters have no intentions to return your money. But to make the denial look more legitimate, they’ve made up a whole bunch of reasons to decline the withdrawal request. Usually, they repeat what KYC regulations say, but for the Menolax.com they are here only to make the withdrawal impossible.

By asking for your personal info, frauds just stall hoping for you to accept the loss and stop contacting them. If you don’t – well, there are multiple other checks you should go through before getting your funds back. And every check will reveal 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 Menolax.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Menolax 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 fraud, scoundrels may reach out to you with particular files. Alternatively, they may suggest you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to simplify access to your crypto assets. As we already determined, these rascals have no plan of returning your money. So, what do these emails and browser extensions represent? Correct – that is another element of the deceptive plan designed to entice you into deliberately running malicious applications onto your computer.

Both add-ons and attachments included to emails can act as a shell for various malware. In this scenario, I foresee 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 above zero. As stated, their morality is of no concern, and their dignity is already severely tarnished. They have no principles to give up and intend to maximize gains.

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