We Investigated Ralutex: Legit or Scam? The Facts

Recently, Ralutex.com site popped up, promoting itself as a platform where you can safely store cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather reliable evidence that unmistakably indicates it is, in truth, a fraudulent service.

Despite the promises of the most convenient, reliable, and customer-centric service, Ralutex.com 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 stories about bonuses, endorsement from celebrities etc are absent as well.

Ralutex Scam Overview

Originally, Ralutex poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet service with exceptionally low commission fees. Another bright selling point for this platform is partnerships with celebrities that are known as crypto activists. Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Vitalii Buterin, Jeff Bezos – the site claims having significant support from them. To make these claims look real, frauds use AI-generated videos where those celebrities advertise the fake crypto service as if it was the best thing in the world. Obviously, Elon Musk is the most common choise for that. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a blatant wrap around a transparent scam.

Ralutex Scam

To begin with, Ralutex copies the appearance of many similar websites. There are quite a few examples, like Webchangex, Chainhaven or Tanerex. They are completely undistinguishable in terms of graphic elements, with minor discrepancies in the webpage header. Other particulars, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are identical. Probably, all these fraudulent online platforms are led by the same gang of scammers.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Ralutex Scam Works?

Ralutex is a part of a large cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Rascals who stand behind it use several website designs, which still share the same 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 begin the scam, criminals create and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They mainly target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign commences. Using bots and paid ads (when possible), fraud actors boost the visibility of their deceptive activities to potential victims. And as I said, fraudsters do not shy away using deepfake for creating clips with the aforementioned celebs that advertise 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 Ralutex in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon following the promotions, targets end up on a page filled with appealing offers. “Crypto starts with Ralutex”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Ralutex, “Start earning with Ralutex – they look rather credible. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, scammers say that claiming the promised bonus requires registration. And since nothing concerning happens at this point, unaware users happily move on – especially since 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 register using your personal information, crooks 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 mentioned, scammers bait folks into registration for bonuses. And all the personal info needed for it – email, username, crypto wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Exclusively by gathering this information and selling it further into the Darknet, fraudsters can earn quite a penny. Nonetheless, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, you cannot use the alleged bonus right away. To make it at least usable for crypto purchases, you need to 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

Obviously, any cryptocurrency purchases require having funds on your account. With Ralutex, users are also coerced to top up to get the bonuses. And this is what creates most of the cash flow to this scam website. By topping up the account, users hope to get the pledged gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start participating on this website hoping to use all the transferred capital and withdraw them.

This, however, 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 notice that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to pull out 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 fraudsters are naught on intentions to send you money. But to make it look more realistic, they’ve elaborated a whole bunch of reasons to decline the withdrawal request. Most of them repeat what Know Your Client regulations say, but in this case they are here only to make the withdrawal impossible.

By asking for your personal data, scammers just stall hoping for you to understand that you’ve been scammed and stop contacting them. If you don’t – well, there are numerous other checks you should go through before getting your money back. And every check will reveal more and more information, 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 Ralutex.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Ralutex 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, fraudsters may contact you with particular files. Alternatively, they may suggest you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to streamline access to your crypto assets. As we earlier determined, these rascals have no intention of giving back your funds. So, what do these emails and browser add-ons represent? Correct – that is another element of the scam designed to entice you into deliberately installing malicious software onto your computer.

Both plugins and files added to emails can act as a shell for diverse malicious software. In this case, I expect 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 above zero. As stated, their ethics is of negligible importance, and their dignity is already seriously marred. They have no principles to give up and strive to maximize profits.

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