We Investigated Relybit: Legit or Scam? The Facts

Recently, Relybit.site website surfaced, promoting itself as a platform where you can securely store cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather reliable evidence that clearly reveals it is, actually, a deceptive platform.

Despite the promises of the most convenient, trustworthy, and client-friendly service, Relybit.site does not follow any of them. In fact, all this is just a gilded wrap around a blatant scam, which steals your money and data and never gives them back. Any stories about gifts, sponsorship from celebrities etc are non-existent as well.

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Relybit Scam Overview

Originally, Relybit poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet platform with outstandingly low commission fees. Another bright marketing point for this site is backing from celebrities that are known in the crypto world. Vitalii Buterin (Ethereum creator), Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet – the site says about being supported by them. To make these claims look more realistic, rascals use AI-generated videos with those celebs advertise the scam as if it was the best thing in the world. For known reasons, Elon Musk is the most common among them. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a vivid wrap around a transparent scam.

Relybit Scam

To begin with, Relybit copies the layout of numerous similar websites. There are quite a few examples, like Expressboostoption, Ethktb or Fpmhelenic. They are entirely indistinguishable in terms of visual elements, with small discrepancies in the site header. Other particulars, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are identical. Most likely, all these scam websites are managed by a single team of scoundrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Relybit Scam Works?

Relybit is a part of a significant cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Scammers who stand behind it use various website designs, which still share the same 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 legitimacy 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 generally aim at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign commences. Utilizing bots and paid ads (when achievable), fraud actors intensify the presence of their deceptive activities to possible victims. And as I said, crooks do not disdain 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 registers the service immediately.

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

Users obtain an incentive to sign up, enticed by the promise of receiving cryptocurrency prizes valued at thousands of dollars, all free of charge. To increase the appeal of the offer, false suggestions of sponsorship by a celebrity are added. As you may guess, these claims are entirely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

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

At this point, it is possible to get away from the scam without any losses. Before you register using your personal info, rascals will not earn even a penny from your presence on the website.

Step 3: Data Gathering

This is where the main fraud action begins. As I just said, frauds bait folks into signing up to get bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – email, username, crypto wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Exclusively by gathering this data and selling it further into the Darknet, fraudsters can earn quite a penny. Still, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, the claimed bonus is not available to use right away. To make at least crypto purchases on the platform with it, the user should 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 operations require having money on your account. In the case of Relybit, 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 site. 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 credited money and withdraw them.

This is where the victim notices the problems. When comparing 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 funds 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 are naught on intentions to send you money. Though to make the fraud look more legitimate, they’ve developed a whole pack of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Most of them repeat what KYC regulations say, but in this case they are here exclusively to make the wireout impossible.

By asking for your personal data, frauds 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 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 Relybit.site. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Relybit 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 fraud, fraudsters may reach out to you with specific documents. Alternatively, they may suggest you to install “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to streamline access to your cryptocurrency savings. As we earlier figured out, these deceivers have no plan of giving back your money. So, what can these emails and browser add-ons represent? You guessed – this is another component of the deceptive plan designed to throw you into deliberately installing harmful software onto your computer.

Both add-ons and attachments attached to emails can function as a carrier for various malware. In this case, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among other types of malware. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the chance is always existent. As stated, their conscience is of negligible importance, and their dignity is already deeply compromised. They have no principles to lose and strive to maximize revenues.

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