Recently, Moontenx.com website surfaced, promoting itself as a place where you can safely store cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather credible evidence that unmistakably reveals it is, in truth, a fraudulent site.
Despite what Moontenx site states, they won’t pay off your funds. Even though the money displayed in the “member area”, there is absolutely no way to retrieve even a cent. All pledges regarding crypto rewards are empty as well.
Moontenx Scam Overview
The key offering that Moontenx aims to provide is a secure and user-friendly cryptocurrency wallet service. The website promises crypto exchange services, tools for controlling wallets, transfers, dashboards, and similar functions. In fact, they endeavor to emulate the functionality of a crypto trading platform, like Binance or Coinbase. However, it in fact solely serves as a shell intended to lull the vigilance.
First and foremost, Moontenx mimics the appearance of numerous similar online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Krotax, Mocopex or Hillvex. They are totally undistinguishable in terms of graphic elements, with small discrepancies in the webpage header. Other specific elements, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are the same. Most likely, all these deceptive online platforms are led by the same team of scoundrels.
Cryptocurrency Scam Summary
| Website | Moontenx.com |
| Hosting | AS13335 Cloudflare, Inc. United States, San Francisco |
| IP Address | 172.67.161.16 |
| Threat Type | Scam/Fraud |
| Scam Type | Fraudulent offers of cryptocurrency services |
How the Moontenx Scam Works?
Moontenx is yet another online platform within a wide-ranging network of associated crypto scam platforms. The operators employ diverse brand names and sites, like Moontenx.com, to capture victims. However, these fraudulent websites share identical designs, terms of service, and About Us information. This exposes their beginnings as a part of the identical scam network, which advocates the same mode of fraud under different appearances. The fraudsters merely copy the equal deceptive website under various names to fool users into thinking they are enrolling a fresh platform. However, in reality, it’s the same group of fraudsters orchestrating the deceptive pledges and attempts to seize deposited money. The managers skillfully utilize psychological strategies and captivating propositions to implement their deceitful plots.
Step 1: Spreading
To begin the deceptive scheme, criminals create and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They primarily focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign starts. Employing bots and sponsored promotions (when possible), scam actors intensify the visibility of their scam activities to possible victims. This approach enables them to cast a broad net and engage with their focused audience. This public commonly consists of cryptocurrency enthusiastic individuals searching for chances to earn profits.
Users obtain an incentive to register, attracted by the promise of getting crypto benefits valued at hundreds of dollars, all free of charge. To increase the appeal of the offer, fake claims of sponsorship by a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these assertions are entirely baseless.
Step 2: Gaining Traffic
Users who demonstrate interest check out Moontenx.com via links featured in ads or robotic posts. The website employs captivating visuals, design aspects that appear authentic, and claims of holding a legitimate license, all designed to present an initial perception of trustworthiness.
Step 3: Data Gathering
To redeem their benefits, users need to deliberately sign up on Moontenx and get prompts to provide sensitive and private data during the enrollment process. This comprises linking their cryptocurrency wallets, sharing email addresses, giving phone numbers, sending in identification documents, and more.
Step 4: Requesting funds
Once registered, users observe substantial amounts of cryptocurrency, valued at hundreds of dollars, within their Moontenx wallets. Nevertheless, as it usually happens with such bonuses, you can’t withdraw them before topping up your account. Typically, a deposit of $100 is required to get the sign-up bonus. This prerequisite serves as the enticement that ultimately leads to the money loss.
Step 5: Disappear
Signs of Scam
I gathered several facts that point at the scammy nature of the Moontenx.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.
- Absent company details. Moontenx 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 Moontenx 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 Moontenx, 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 Moontenx is a definite scam.
What Should I do as a Victim?
If you had to deal with Moontenx 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 scam, rascals may reach out to you with particular documents. Alternatively, they may offer you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to streamline access to your crypto savings. As we earlier figured out, these deceivers have no intent of restoring your capital. So, what can these email messages and browser extensions represent? Correct – that is another component of the scam designed to throw you into willingly installing malicious programs onto your computer.
Both add-ons and attachments attached to email messages can act as a carrier for various malicious code. In this case, I foresee the presence of spyware and stealers among other forms of malicious programs. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always greater than zero. As noted, their morality is of little concern, and their reputation is already severely tarnished. They have no scruples to give up and aim to boost gains.
Frequently asked questions
- Contact your bank or card provider and ask about chargeback options.
- Save screenshots, receipts, tracking numbers, and emails as evidence.
- Change reused passwords and enable two-factor authentication on important accounts.
- Watch for follow-up phishing emails pretending to offer refunds or delivery updates.
