We Investigated Qrybut: Legit or Scam? The Facts

Recently, Qrybutgroup.co site appeared, promoting itself as a platform where you can securely keep cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather reliable proof that unmistakably reveals it is, in fact, a deceptive site.

Despite the promises of the most user-friendly, trustworthy, and customer-centric service, Qrybutgroup.co does not follow any of them. All this is just a gilded wrap around a dirty scam, which steals your money and data and never gives them back. Any tales about bonuses, endorsement from celebrities etc are absent as well.

Qrybut Scam Overview

Originally, Qrybut poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet platform with remarkably low commission fees. Another bright marketing point for this service is backing from celebrities that have relation to the crypto world. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Vitalii Buterin, Warren Buffet – the site says about being supported by them. To make these claims look real, frauds employ AI-generated videos with those celebs advertise the scam as if it was the best thing in the world. Obviously, Elon Musk is the most common among them. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a blatant wrap around an obvious scam.

Qrybut Scam

First and foremost, Qrybut repeats the design of many equivalent websites. There are quite a few examples, like Fastcoinen, Bittiebit or Tidexcoin. They are entirely indistinguishable in terms of visual elements, with small discrepancies in the webpage header. Other particulars, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Presumably, all these scam sites are managed by a single gang of frauds.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Qrybut Scam Works?

Qrybut is a part of a significant cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Rascals who stand behind it use numerous 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 validity of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To initiate the deceptive scheme, criminals establish and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They primarily focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign starts. Using bots and paid promotions (when achievable), fraud actors increase the visibility of their fraudulent activities to possible victims. And as I said, fraudsters do not shy away using deepfake for creating videos with the mentioned celebrities that advertise their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, deceivers claim the bonus for every user who enrolls the service immediately.

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

Users get a stimulus to register, attracted by the promise of getting crypto benefits valued at thousands of dollars, all for free. To enhance the appeal of the offer, false suggestions of sponsorship by a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these claims are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon following the promos, users end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with Qrybut”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Qrybut, “Start earning with Qrybut – they look rather credible. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, crooks say that claiming the pledged bonus requires registration. And as nothing questionable happens at this point, unaware users happily proceed – especially since the reward 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, swindrels will not be able to earn even a penny from your presence on the website.

Step 3: Data Gathering

This is the starting poing of the main fraud action. As I just said, deceivers bait folks for registration with bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – username, email, 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. 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 crypto purchases, you need to top up the account with the equivalent sum. At this point, the final stage of the scam begins.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Eventually, any crypto purchases require you to have capital on your account. With Qrybut, users are also coerced to top up to use the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates the majority 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 participating on this site hoping to use all the deposited capital and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the issues start to surface. When comparing the actual crypto wallet vs what the website says, you can notice 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 swindlers have 0 intentions to give your money back. Though to make the denial look more legitimate, they’ve elaborated a whole bunch of reasons to decline the withdrawal request. Most of them repeat what KYC guidelines say, but for the Qrybutgroup.co they are here only to make the wireout impossible.

By asking for your personal information, deceivers 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 should go through 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 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 Qrybutgroup.co. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Qrybut 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.

• Immediate Reporting. Your initial step should involve promptly notifying local authorities specializing in financial fraud. Extend your reach by reaching out to wallet providers and engaging with social networks’ technical support teams. These actions serve to raise the bar for the scammers’ operations.
• Share among Friends. Amplify your efforts by informing your close friends about the scam. Similar to informing authorities, this dissemination of information restricts the scammers’ potential victim pool.
• Preserve Crucial Information. Compile a comprehensive evidence archive by capturing screenshots and archiving all relevant website-related data. Collect the website URL, screenshots of the main page, login interface, end-user license agreement (EULA), account top-up menu, and wallet addresses. These records could provide vital clues for authorities in their pursuit of the scammers.
• Exploring Refund Options. While most banks’ refund policies may exclude cryptocurrency payments, it’s advisable to explore potential refund avenues under specific circumstances. Maintain hope until you obtain confirmation of the loss.
• Transform Loss into Knowledge. Turn your financial setback into an opportunity for growth. View your loss as an investment in understanding the strategies employed by crypto scam sites. Familiarize yourself with their telltale characteristics, the methods they employ to entice individuals, and the extravagant promises they make. Equipped with this insight, you’ll be well-prepared to spot and evade future traps without suffering additional 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 course of the scam, its actors may get in touch with you with particular files. Alternatively, they may suggest you to install “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to streamline access to your cryptocurrency assets. As we earlier figured out, these scammers have no intention of restoring your capital. So, what can these messages and browser extensions represent? You guessed it right – this is another element of the fraudulent scheme designed to entice you into willingly running malicious applications onto your computer.

Both extensions and attachments attached to emails can function as a shell for various malicious code. In this case, I anticipate the presence of spyware and stealers among other kinds of threats. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the probability is always greater than zero. As stated, their conscience is of no concern, and their reputation is already severely tarnished. They have nothing to give up and intend to boost profits.

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