We Investigated Nelumex: Legit or Scam? The Facts

Recently, Nelumex.com site popped up, promoting itself as a platform to store cryptocurrency and other assets securely. I managed to gather reliable evidence that unmistakably indicates it is, actually, a deceptive platform.

Regardless of the promises of the most easy, reliable, and client-friendly service, Nelumex.com does not fulfill any of them. All this is just a gilded wrap around a blatant scam, which takes your funds and never gives them back. Any tales about gifts, backing from celebrities etc are absent as well.

Nelumex Scam Overview

Originally, Nelumex poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet platform with remarkably low commission fees. Another bright selling point for this site is partnerships with celebrities that are known as crypto activists. Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Vitalii Buterin, Jeff Bezos – the site says about being supported by them. To make these claims look real, con actors use AI-generated videos with those celebs promote the fake crypto service as the best thing in the world. Obviously, Elon Musk is the most common choise for that. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a glaring wrap around an obvious scam.

Nelumex Scam

To begin with, Nelumex copies the layout of many equivalent online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Venlumix, Lenzela or Volenix. They are completely identical in terms of graphic elements, with small discrepancies in the website header. Other details, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are matching. Probably, all these scam online platforms are operated by a single group of fraudsters.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Nelumex Scam Works?

Nelumex is a part of a significant cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Scammers who stand behind it use numerous website designs, which still share the similar 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 validity of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To begin the scam, criminals create and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They mainly target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign starts. Employing bots and sponsored advertisements (when possible), fraud actors increase the visibility of their scam activities to potential victims. And as I said, scammers do not shy away using deepfake for creating videos with the aforementioned celebs that advertise their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, swindlers claim the bonus for every user who registers the service immediately.

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

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon clicking the promotions, users end up on a page filled with attractive offers. “Crypto starts with Nelumex”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Nelumex, “Start earning with Nelumex – they look rather authoritative. 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 suspicious happens at this point, unaware users happily move on – especially since the gift appears to be right behind the corner.

At this point, it is possible to steer away from the scam without any losses. Before you register using your personal information, crooks will not be able to earn even a nickel from your presence on the website.

Step 3: Data Gathering

This is where the main fraud action begins. As I just mentioned, frauds bait folks for registration with bonuses. And all the personal data needed for it – email, username, cryptocurrency wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Solely by gathering this info and selling it further into the Darknet, crooks can earn quite a penny. Nonetheless, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, you cannot use the alleged bonus right away. To make it at least usable for crypto purchases, the user should top up the account with the sum of a bonus. And this is what starts the final step of the scam.

Step 4: Requesting funds

It is obvious that any crypto purchases require having funds on your account. With Nelumex, users are also forced to top up to use the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates most of the money flow to this fraudulent website. By topping up the account, users hope to get the promised gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start trading on this site hoping to use all the credited money and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the first obvious issues start to surface. When keeping an eye on the actual crypto wallet vs what the site says, you can spot that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to retrieve the money from your account, the scam is finally uncovered to the user.

Step 5: Escaping from Funds Withdrawal

Needless to say that scoundrels have 0 intentions to give your money back. Though to make the denial look more realistic, they’ve made up a whole pack of reasons to decline the wireout request. Usually, they repeat what KYC guidelines say, but in this case they are here exclusively to make the withdrawal impossible.

By asking for your personal data, deceivers just stall hoping for you to accept the loss 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 uncover 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 Nelumex.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Nelumex 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 timeline of the fraud, rascals may reach out to you with specific documents. Alternatively, they may offer you to set up “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to simplify access to your cryptocurrency savings. As we previously figured out, these scoundrels have no intent of restoring your funds. So, what do these messages and browser extensions represent? Correct – that is another element of the deceptive plan designed to entice you into deliberately running destructive applications onto your device.

Both plugins and attachments attached to email messages can act as a shell for various malicious software. In this case, I foresee the presence of spyware and stealers among all forms of malware. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the probability is always existent. As stated, their ethics is of little concern, and their reputation is already severely tarnished. They have no principles to give up and intend to maximize revenues.

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