We Investigated Payxup: Legit or Scam? The Facts

Recently, Payxup.xyz site popped up, promoting itself as a place to store cryptocurrency and other assets securely. I managed to gather credible supporting information that unmistakably reveals it is, in truth, a scam platform.

Regardless of the promises of the most convenient, reliable, and customer-centric service, Payxup.xyz does not fulfill any of them. In fact, all this is just a golden wrap around a clear scam, which takes your money and never returns them. Any tales about gifts, backing from celebrities etc are nowhere to be found as well.

Payxup Scam Overview

Originally, Payxup poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with exceptionally low commission fees. Another highlighted marketing point for this site is partnerships with celebrities that are known as crypto activists. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Vitalii Buterin, Warren Buffet – the site claims having significant support from them. To make these claims look more realistic, frauds use AI-generated videos with those celebs advertise the fake crypto service as the best thing in the world. For known reasons, Elon Musk is the most common choise for that. But, as I said in the introduction, all this is just a glaring wrap around an obvious scam.

Payxup Scam

To begin with, Payxup shares the design of numerous similar online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Tutulex, Trilogy or Swapx. They are totally indistinguishable in terms of graphic elements, with small discrepancies in the website header. Other particulars, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are matching. Probably, all these deceptive websites are managed by a single group of swindrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Payxup Scam Works?

Payxup is a part of a large 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 common 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 authenticity of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To initiate the fraud, criminals establish and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They mainly focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign begins. Utilizing bots and paid ads (when possible), fraud actors increase the visibility of their fraudulent activities to possible victims. And as I said, scammers do not disdain using generative AI 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 joins the service immediately.

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

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After following the ads, targets end up on a page filled with attractive offers. “Crypto starts with Payxup”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Payxup, “Start earning with Payxup – they look rather reliable. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, scammers say that obtaining the pledged bonus requires registration. And since nothing suspicious happens at this point, uninformed users happily proceed – especially since the bonus appears to be right behind the corner.

At this point, it is possible to steer away from the scam without any losses. Before you sign up using your personal info, rascals 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 – username, email, crypto wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Only by gathering this data 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 promised bonus right away. To make it at least usable for cryptocurrency purchases, the user should top up the account with the sum of a bonus. And this is what initiates the final stage of the scam.

Step 4: Requesting funds

It is obvious that any cryptocurrency operations require you to have capital on your account. In the case of Payxup, users are also forced to top up to use the bonuses. And this is what creates most of the money flow to this fraudulent website. By topping up the account, users hope to get the committed gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start trading on this site hoping to use all the deposited funds and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the issues start to surface. When keeping an eye on the real cryptocurrency wallet vs what the website says, you can notice that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to withdraw the capital 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 have zero intentions to give your money back. But to make the fraud look more realistic, they’ve elaborated a whole pack of reasons to decline the withdrawal request. Usually, they repeat what Know Your Client regulations say, but for the Payxup.xyz they are here only to make the withdrawal impossible.

By asking for your personal data, 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 would desperately need to undergo before getting your money back. And every check will reveal 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 Payxup.xyz. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Payxup 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 timeline of the scam, its actors may contact you with particular documents. Alternatively, they may propose you to install “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your cryptocurrency funds. As we previously determined, these scoundrels have no intention of returning your funds. So, what can these messages and browser extensions represent? You guessed – this is another side of the scam designed to entice you into willingly running harmful programs onto your computer.

Both add-ons and attachments included to emails can act as a shell for diverse malicious code. In this case, I anticipate the presence of spyware and stealers among all kinds of malware. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always significant. As previously mentioned, their conscience is of negligible importance, and their dignity is already deeply compromised. They have nothing to lose and strive to maximize profits.

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