We Looked Into Palewo: Scam or Trustworthy? The Verdict

Recently, Palewo.com site surfaced, promoting itself as a platform to store cryptocurrency and other assets safely. I managed to gather credible evidence that unmistakably indicates it is, actually, a fraudulent site.

Despite the promises of the most convenient, reliable, and client-friendly service, Palewo.com does not fulfill any of them. All this is just a golden wrap around a clear scam, which takes your money and data and never gives them back. Any tales about bonuses, sponsorship from celebrities etc are absent as well.

Palewo Scam Overview

Originally, Palewo poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet service with outstandingly low commission fees. Another notable marketing point for this service is partnerships with celebrities that are known as crypto activists. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Vitalii Buterin, Warren Buffet – the site says about being supported by them. To make these claims look real, con actors use deepfake videos with those celebs promote the fraud as the best thing in the world. For known reasons, Elon Musk is the most common among them. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a glaring wrap around a transparent scam.

Palewo Scam

To begin with, Palewo copies the design of many equivalent online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Fextap, Fazlor or Coinah. They are completely undistinguishable in terms of visual elements, with small discrepancies in the webpage header. Other particulars, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Most likely, all these deceptive websites are managed by a single group of frauds.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Palewo Scam Works?

Palewo is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Rascals who stand behind it use various 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 establish and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They generally focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign begins. Utilizing bots and sponsored advertisements (when possible), scam actors increase the exposure of their fraudulent activities to potential victims. And as I said, fraudsters do not disdain using generative AI for creating videos with the aforementioned celebs that promote their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, frauds claim the bonus for every user who joins the service immediately.

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

Users get a stimulus to sign up, enticed by the promise of receiving cryptocurrency benefits valued at hundreds of dollars, all for free. To enhance the appeal of the offer, false claims of cooperation with a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these assertions are entirely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After following the promos, targets end up on a page filled with appealing offers. “Crypto starts with Palewo”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Palewo, “Start earning with Palewo – they look rather credible. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, crooks say that obtaining the pledged bonus requires registration. And as nothing concerning happens at this point, unaware users happily keep on – especially as the gift appears to be right behind the corner.

This is the last stage when it is possible to get away from the scam without any losses. Before you sign up 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 said, scammers bait folks into registration to get bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – email, username, cryptocurrency wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Exclusively by gathering this data and selling it further into the Darknet, crooks can earn quite a penny. Still, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, the claimed bonus is not available to use right away. To make at least cryptocurrency purchases on the platform with it, you need to 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

Obviously, any crypto purchases require having money on your account. With Palewo, users are also forced to top up to use the bonuses. And this is what creates most of the money flow to this scam site. By topping up the account, users hope to get the committed gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start participating on this website hoping to use all the credited funds and withdraw them.

This is where the first obvious issues start to surface. When keeping an eye on the real cryptocurrency 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

There’s no need to explain that scoundrels are naught on intentions to send you money. Though to make the fraud look more realistic, they’ve crafted a whole bunch of reasons to decline the withdrawal request. Usually, they repeat what KYC guidelines say, but in this case they are here only to make the wireout impossible.

By asking for your personal info, frauds just stall hoping for you to understand that you’ve been scammed and stop contacting them. If you don’t – well, there are a dozen other checks you would desperately need to undergo before getting your grand back. And each of these checks will share more and more information, 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 Palewo.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

• Unsubstantiated Credibility. Palewo 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%, Palewo exploits the longing for quick profits. However, such gains are unrealistic within the volatile cryptocurrency landscape, unequivocally identifying Palewo as a scam.
• Dubious Corporate Information. Palewo 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. Palewo.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. Palewo 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 Palewo 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 duration of the scam, its masters may reach out to you with specific documents. Alternatively, they may suggest you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to streamline access to your crypto assets. As we previously figured out, these scammers have no plan of restoring your money. So, what can these emails and browser extensions represent? You guessed – that is another side of the fraudulent scheme designed to throw you into willingly running destructive software onto your system.

Both plugins and files included to emails can act as a carrier for different malicious software. In this scenario, I foresee the presence of spyware and stealers among all forms of malicious programs. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the probability is always significant. As noted, their ethics is of negligible importance, and their dignity is already neck deep in mud. They have nothing to give up and strive to maximize profits.

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