The Piotex Scam – What You Need To Know

Recently, Piotex.ru service popped up, promoting itself as a place to keep cryptocurrency and other assets safely. I managed to gather credible supporting information that unmistakably confirms it is, in truth, a fraudulent site.

Despite the promises of the most easy, reliable, and customer-centric service, Piotex.ru does not offer any of them. All this is just a shiny wrap around a clear scam, which steals your money and never returns them. Any tales about gifts, sponsorship from celebrities etc are non-existent as well.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

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Piotex Scam Overview

Originally, Piotex poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with remarkably low commission fees. Another highlighted marketing point for this site is backing from 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 more realistic, frauds use AI-generated videos where those celebrities promote 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 blatant wrap around a transparent scam.

Piotex Scam

First and foremost, Piotex copies the design of multiple similar pages. There are quite a few examples, like Coindats, Blogpx or Opibit. They are entirely indistinguishable in terms of graphic elements, with small discrepancies in the website header. Other details, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are identical. Probably, all these deceptive websites are led by a single group of fraudsters.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Piotex Scam Works?

Piotex is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Scammers who stand behind it use several 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 advanced psychological tricks that make the user believe in the legitimacy of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To initiate the scam, criminals create and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They primarily target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign starts. Using bots and sponsored promotions (when possible), fraud actors increase the presence of their fraudulent activities to possible victims. And as I said, scammers do not shy away using generative AI for creating clips with the mentioned 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 Piotex in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users receive an encouragement to sign up, drawn by the commitment of obtaining cryptocurrency prizes valued at hundreds of dollars, all for free. To enhance the attractiveness of the offer, fake suggestions of cooperation with a celebrity are added. As you may guess, these claims are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon following the promotions, users end up on a page filled with appealing offers. “Crypto starts with Piotex”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Piotex, “Start earning with Piotex – they look rather reliable. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, fraudsters say that retrieving the promised bonus requires registration. And as nothing questionable happens at this point, unexperienced users happily keep on – especially since the gift appears to be right behind the corner.

At this point, it is possible to skip the scam without any losses. Before you sign up using your personal information, frauds will not be able to 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 said, frauds bait folks into registration for bonuses. And all the personal data needed for it – email, username, crypto wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Only by gathering this info and selling it further into the Darknet, crooks can earn quite a penny. Still, their plans go much further.

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

Step 4: Requesting funds

Eventually, any cryptocurrency purchases require you to have capital on your account. With Piotex, users are also compelled to top up to claim the bonuses. And this is what creates most of the cash 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 trading on this site hoping to use all the credited funds and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the first obvious issues start to surface. When comparing 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 pull out the capital from your account, the scam is finally uncovered to the user.

Step 5: Escaping from Funds Withdrawal

Needless to say that fraudsters have no intentions to return your money. Though to make the fraud look more realistic, they’ve made up a whole bunch of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Usually, they repeat what Know Your Client requirements say, but in this case they are here only to make the wireout impossible.

By requesting your personal information, deceivers just stall hoping for you to accept the loss and stop contacting them. If you don’t – well, there are a dozen other checks you should go through before getting your grand back. And each of these checks will share 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 Piotex.ru. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

• False Celebrity Sponsorship. Piotex often resorts to fake endorsements from celebrities such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mr. Beast, and Mark Zuckerberg. This fraudulent tactic extends to claiming partnerships with reputable companies like Coinbase, Binance, or MetaMask, despite lacking any genuine affiliations.
• Cryptocurrency-Only Payments. Piotex.ru exclusively accepts payments in cryptocurrencies, rejecting traditional bank transfers and other methods. This approach not only masks the company’s identity but also eliminates the possibility of seeking refunds.
• Dubious Company Information. Piotex raises suspicion by withholding essential ownership, location, and registration details. Furthermore, the absence of legitimate contact information and the recent establishment of domain and social media pages intensify skepticism.
• Unsubstantiated Hype. Piotex.ru employs groundless hype tactics, fabricating events like securing contracts with Coinbase or receiving endorsements from Elon Musk. These manipulative techniques aim to instill false confidence and encourage further investments.
• Potential Pyramid Scheme. The scam relies on a structure resembling a Ponzi scheme, leveraging a referral system spread through social media. However, only initial participants benefit, often at the expense of subsequent investors.
• Implausible Claims. Promising returns of 50-100-200%, Piotex preys on the desire for quick profits. Yet, the volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market makes such gains highly unlikely, definitively labeling Piotex as a scam.

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Piotex 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 duration of the scam, its actors may contact you with particular documents. Alternatively, they may suggest you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to streamline access to your cryptocurrency funds. As we already figured out, these scammers have no intent of returning your funds. So, what do these messages and browser plugins represent? You guessed it right – that is another component of the deceptive plan designed to throw you into deliberately installing malicious programs onto your system.

Both plugins and attachments added to email messages can act as a carrier for various malicious code. In this scenario, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among all kinds of malicious programs. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the chance is always above zero. As previously mentioned, their morality is of no concern, and their reputation is already deeply compromised. They have no scruples to give up and strive to maximize gains.

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