Investigating Mernabit: Legit or Scam? The Truth Revealed

Recently, Mernabit.com service surfaced, promoting itself as a platform where you can securely store cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather reliable evidence that unmistakably indicates it is, in truth, a fraudulent site.

Regardless of the promises of the most easy, reliable, and customer-centric service, Mernabit.com does not offer any of them. In fact, all this is just a golden wrap around a clear scam, which steals your funds and never returns them. Any tales about gifts, endorsement from celebrities etc are nowhere to be found as well.

Mernabit Scam Overview

Originally, Mernabit poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet platform with exceptionally low commission fees. Another notable selling point for this site is partnerships with celebrities that are known as crypto activists. 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 real, rascals employ deepfake videos where those celebrities advertise the fraud as if it was 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 glaring wrap around an obvious scam.

Mernabit Scam

Initially, Mernabit shares the design of multiple similar online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Sergrid, Xbestwave or Skyprax. They are completely identical in terms of graphic elements, with minor discrepancies in the webpage header. Other specific elements, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are identical. Presumably, all these scam sites are led by a single gang of swindrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Mernabit Scam Works?

Mernabit is a part of a large cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Swindlers who stand behind it use various website designs, which still share the same 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 start the deceptive scheme, criminals establish and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They generally aim at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign begins. Utilizing bots and paid promotions (when achievable), fraud actors increase the exposure of their deceptive activities to potential victims. And as I said, crooks do not disdain using generative AI for creating clips with the mentioned celebs that promote their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, swindlers claim the bonus for every user who joins the service immediately.

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

Users obtain a stimulus to enroll, drawn by the promise of receiving crypto benefits valued at thousands of dollars, all free of charge. To augment the attractiveness of the offer, fake claims of sponsorship by a celebrity are added. As you may guess, these assertions are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon following the ads, victims end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with Mernabit”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Mernabit, “Start earning with Mernabit – they look rather credible. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, scammers say that claiming the promoted bonus requires registration. And since nothing suspicious happens at this point, uninformed users happily keep on – especially as the bonus appears to be right behind the corner.

At this point, it is possible to get away from the scam without any losses. Before you sign up using your personal data, crooks 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 info needed for it – username, email, cryptocurrency wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Exclusively 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 to use 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 crypto purchases require having money on your account. With Mernabit, users are also forced to top up to get the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates most of the cash flow to this scam site. 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, however, is where the victim notices the problems. When keeping an eye on the actual crypto wallet vs what the site says, you can observe that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to pull out the capital from your account, the scam is finally uncovered to the user.

Step 5: Escaping from Funds Withdrawal

Needless to say that scoundrels have no intentions to give your money back. Though to make it look more legitimate, they’ve made up a whole pack of reasons to decline the wireout request. Most of them repeat what KYC requirements say, but for the Mernabit.com they are here only to make the withdrawal impossible.

By asking for your personal information, scammers 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 grand back. And each of these checks will uncover more and more information, 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 Mernabit.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Mernabit 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 course of the scam, its masters may contact you with particular files. Alternatively, they may offer you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to simplify access to your crypto funds. As we earlier figured out, these scoundrels have no intention of returning your capital. So, what can these email messages and browser plugins represent? Correct – this is another element of the scam designed to throw you into deliberately installing harmful applications onto your system.

Both extensions and attachments included to emails can act as a carrier for diverse malicious software. In this case, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among other forms of threats. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the chance is always greater than zero. As previously mentioned, their conscience is of negligible importance, and their reputation is already seriously marred. They have no scruples to lose and aim to boost revenues.

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