Investigating $PEPU Presale: Legit or Scam? The Truth Revealed

Recently, Claimpepeunchain.pages.dev site appeared, promoting itself as a platform to store cryptocurrency and other assets safely. I managed to gather credible supporting information that clearly reveals it is, in fact, a deceptive platform.

Regardless of the promises of the most easy, dependable, and customer-centric service, Claimpepeunchain.pages.dev does not offer any of them. All this is just a gilded wrap around a dirty scam, which takes your money and never returns them. Any tales about bonuses, sponsorship from celebrities etc are nowhere to be found as well.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

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$PEPU Presale Scam Overview

Originally, $PEPU Presale poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with exceptionally low commission fees. Another notable marketing point for this service is partnerships with celebrities that are known in the crypto world. Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Vitalii Buterin, Jeff Bezos – the site says about being supported by them. To make these claims look real, con actors employ AI-generated videos with those celebs advertise the fake crypto service as if it was the best thing in the world. For obvious reasons, Elon Musk is the most common among them. But, as I said in the introduction, all this is just a glaring wrap around an obvious scam.

$PEPU Presale Scam

To begin with, $PEPU Presale shares the design of numerous equivalent websites. There are quite a few examples, like Okbits, Hipmine or Getfit. They are completely identical in terms of graphic elements, with small discrepancies in the webpage header. Other details, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are identical. Presumably, all these fraudulent online platforms are managed by the same group of frauds.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the $PEPU Presale Scam Works?

$PEPU Presale is a part of a large cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Swindlers who stand behind it use several website designs, which still share the identical 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 begin the scam, criminals set up and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They mainly aim at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the marketing campaign commences. Using bots and paid advertisements (when possible), scam actors intensify the presence of their deceptive activities to possible victims. And as I said, scammers do not disdain using generative AI for creating videos with the mentioned celebs that promote their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, deceivers claim the bonus for every user who joins the service immediately.

Promotions of cryptoscams like $PEPU Presale in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users get a stimulus to enroll, enticed by the commitment of obtaining cryptocurrency benefits valued at thousands of dollars, all free of charge. To increase the appeal of the offer, false claims of cooperation with a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these assertions are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After clicking the promos, victims end up on a page filled with attractive offers. “Crypto starts with $PEPU Presale”, “Your crypto savings are secured with $PEPU Presale, “Start earning with $PEPU Presale – they look rather authoritative. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, scammers say that retrieving the promised bonus requires registration. And as nothing concerning happens at this point, uninformed users happily keep on – especially as the bonus appears to be right behind the corner.

This is the last stage when it is possible to steer away from the scam without any losses. Before you sign up using your personal info, frauds will not earn even a nickel from your presence on the website.

Step 3: Data Gathering

This is the starting poing of the main fraud action. As I just mentioned, deceivers bait folks into signing up to get bonuses. And all the personal info needed for it – username, email, cryptocurrency wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Solely by gathering this information and selling it further into the Darknet, swindlers can earn quite a penny. Still, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, you cannot use the claimed bonus right away. To make it at least usable for cryptocurrency purchases, 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 cryptocurrency operations require you to have money on your account. With $PEPU Presale, users are also forced to top up to get the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates the majority of the money flow to this scam website. By topping up the account, users hope to get the committed gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start engaging on this site hoping to use all the credited funds and withdraw them.

This 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

Needless to say that fraudsters are naught on intentions to give your money back. Though to make it look more legitimate, they’ve developed a whole pack of reasons to decline the withdrawal request. Usually, they repeat what Know Your Client guidelines say, but for the Claimpepeunchain.pages.dev they are here exclusively to make the wireout impossible.

By asking for your personal information, frauds 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 funds back. And each of these checks will uncover more and more info of yours, 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 Claimpepeunchain.pages.dev. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

• Cryptocurrency-Only Transactions. Claimpepeunchain.pages.dev insists on cryptocurrency payments exclusively, excluding conventional methods like bank transfers. This strategy ensures anonymity for the scam and eliminates any possibility of seeking refunds.
• Dubious Company Credentials. $PEPU Presale arouses suspicion by failing to provide critical information about ownership, location, and legal registration. The lack of valid contact details and the recent creation of domain and social media profiles cast doubt on its legitimacy.
• Baseless Hype Generation. $PEPU Presale resorts to fabricating non-existent achievements, such as contracts with Coinbase or endorsements from Elon Musk, to manipulate emotions and enhance the perception of potential returns, enticing victims to invest more.
• Fictitious Celebrity Association. $PEPU Presale employs a deceptive tactic by falsely associating itself with well-known figures like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mr. Beast, and Mark Zuckerberg. Additionally, the scam falsely claims partnerships with established entities like Coinbase, Binance, or MetaMask to bolster its false credibility.
• Potential Ponzi-Like Model. The scam operates on a pyramid-style referral system disseminated through social media, benefiting only initial participants and relying on later investments to sustain the illusion.
• Unrealistic Profit Promises. Promising improbable returns of 50-100-200%, $PEPU Presale capitalizes on the desire for high profits. However, the tumultuous nature of the cryptocurrency market renders such gains implausible, solidifying Claimpepeunchain.pages.dev as a definite scam.

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with $PEPU Presale 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 to Authorities. Your initial action should involve reporting the scam to local authorities responsible for addressing financial fraud. Additionally, reach out to wallet providers and engage with the technical support teams of social networks. This collective effort raises the bar for the scammers’ operations.
• Inform Your Inner Circle. Extend your impact by sharing information about the scam with your close friends. Similar to notifying authorities, this dissemination of details curbs the scammers’ potential to deceive.
• Document the Trail. Assemble a comprehensive record by capturing screenshots and archiving all relevant website-related data. This encompasses the website URL, screenshots of the main page, login interface, end-user license agreement (EULA), account top-up menu, and wallet addresses. These materials offer invaluable leads for authorities in their pursuit of the scammers.
• Explore Refund Possibilities. While cryptocurrency payments may not typically align with traditional bank refund policies, it’s worthwhile to explore potential refund avenues under specific circumstances. Maintain a positive outlook until you secure confirmation of the loss.
• Transform Loss into Insight. Shift your focus from the financial loss to gaining wisdom. Consider your loss as an investment in comprehending the tactics employed by crypto scam sites. Familiarize yourself with their distinctive traits, the methods they employ to entice individuals, and the extravagant pledges they make. This knowledge equips you to recognize and avoid future traps, minimizing the risk of enduring further financial setbacks.

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, its actors may reach out to you with specific files. Alternatively, they may suggest you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to streamline access to your crypto assets. As we already figured out, these scoundrels have no intent of returning your capital. So, what can these emails and browser add-ons represent? Correct – that is another component of the scam designed to entice you into deliberately running destructive programs onto your system.

Both extensions and files included to emails can act as a carrier for diverse malicious code. In this scenario, I anticipate the presence of spyware and stealers among other kinds of threats. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always existent. As previously mentioned, their ethics is of little concern, and their reputation is already neck deep in mud. They have no scruples to give up and aim to maximize profits.

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