Investigating Sanzolex: Legit or Scam? The Truth Exposed

Recently, Sanzolex.com website appeared, promoting itself as a platform where you can securely store cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather reliable evidence that unmistakably confirms it is, in truth, a deceptive service.

Despite the promises of the most easy, trustworthy, and client-friendly service, Sanzolex.com does not offer any of them. In fact, all this is just a shiny wrap around a dirty scam, which steals your funds and never gives them back. Any tales about gifts, endorsement from celebrities etc are nowhere to be found as well.

Sanzolex Scam Overview

Originally, Sanzolex poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet platform with outstandingly low commission fees. Another notable marketing point for this service is partnerships with celebrities that are known as crypto activists. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Vitalii Buterin, Warren Buffet – the site claims having significant support from them. To make these claims look more realistic, rascals use AI-generated videos where those celebrities advertise the fraud as if it was the best thing in the world. For obvious reasons, Elon Musk is the most common among them. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a glaring wrap around a transparent scam.

Sanzolex Scam

To begin with, Sanzolex copies the design of many equivalent websites. There are quite a few examples, like Saybex, Sayzex or Landunpro. They are totally undistinguishable in terms of visual elements, with minor discrepancies in the website header. Other specific elements, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Most likely, all these scam sites are led by the same gang of scoundrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Sanzolex Scam Works?

Sanzolex is a part of a significant cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Scammers who stand behind it use numerous 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 complex psychological tricks that make the user believe in the authenticity of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To start the fraud, criminals create and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They generally aim at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign begins. Utilizing bots and paid advertisements (when achievable), scam actors intensify the visibility of their scam activities to potential victims. And as I said, scammers do not shy away using deepfake for creating videos with the mentioned celebs that promote their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, frauds claim the bonus for every user who enrolls the service immediately.

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

Users receive a stimulus to register, drawn by the commitment of getting crypto rewards valued at hundreds of dollars, all free of charge. To augment the attractiveness of the offer, false claims of cooperation with a celebrity are added. As you may guess, these assertions are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

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

This is the last stage when it is possible to skip the scam without any losses. Before you sign up using your personal data, swindrels 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 mentioned, deceivers bait folks for registration with bonuses. And all the personal info needed for it – email, username, cryptocurrency wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Exclusively by gathering this info and selling it further into the Darknet, swindlers can earn quite a penny. Still, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, the alleged bonus is not available for withdrawal right away. To make at least crypto purchases on the platform with it, the user should top up the account with the sum of a bonus. At this point, the final stage of the scam begins.

Step 4: Requesting funds

It is obvious that any cryptocurrency purchases require having funds on your account. With Sanzolex, users are also compelled to top up to claim the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates the majority of the money flow to this scam site. By topping up the account, users hope to get the pledged gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start engaging on this website hoping to use all the credited capital and withdraw them.

This 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 capital from your account, the scam is finally uncovered to the user.

Step 5: Escaping from Funds Withdrawal

Needless to say that scoundrels have no intentions to give your money back. Though 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 exclusively to make the withdrawal impossible.

By requesting your personal information, scammers just stall hoping for you to understand that you’ve been scammed and stop contacting them. If you don’t – well, there are multiple other checks you should go through before getting your funds back. And every check will share more and more information, which – you guessed it right – will be then traded 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 Sanzolex.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Sanzolex 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 timeline of the scam, fraudsters 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 cryptocurrency assets. As we already determined, these scoundrels have no intent of giving back your funds. So, what do these messages and browser plugins represent? Correct – that is another side of the fraudulent scheme designed to entice you into deliberately running malicious programs onto your computer.

Both plugins and attachments attached to email messages can serve as a carrier for different malicious software. In this situation, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among all kinds of malware. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the probability is always existent. As noted, their morality is of little concern, and their dignity is already deeply compromised. They have no scruples to lose and aim to boost profits.

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