Sawtesla Review: Legit or Scam? Read This First

Recently, Sawtesla.com service popped up, promoting itself as a place where you can securely keep cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather reliable evidence that clearly reveals it is, in fact, a scam service.

Despite the promises of the most user-friendly, dependable, and client-friendly service, Sawtesla.com does not offer any of them. All this is just a golden wrap around a dirty scam, which steals your money and data and never gives them back. Any stories about bonuses, backing from celebrities etc are non-existent as well.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

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Sawtesla Scam Overview

Originally, Sawtesla poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with exceptionally low commission fees. Another highlighted marketing point for this service is partnerships with celebrities that are known as crypto activists. Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Vitalii Buterin, Jeff Bezos – the site says about being supported by them. To make these claims look real, rascals employ AI-generated videos where those celebrities promote the fake crypto service as if it was the best thing in the world. Obviously, Elon Musk is the most common among them. But, as I said in the introduction, all this is just a vivid wrap around a transparent scam.

Sawtesla Scam

First and foremost, Sawtesla shares the design of many similar online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Dexspacex, Mex2pay or Mortex. They are totally identical in terms of graphic elements, with slight discrepancies in the webpage header. Other details, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are matching. Most likely, all these fraudulent sites are managed by the same gang of frauds.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Sawtesla Scam Works?

Sawtesla is a part of a extensive 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 sophisticated 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 start the deceptive scheme, criminals set up and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They mainly focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign starts. Employing bots and sponsored advertisements (when achievable), fraud actors increase the exposure of their deceptive activities to possible victims. And as I said, fraudsters do not disdain using generative AI for creating videos with the mentioned celebrities 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 Sawtesla in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users obtain a stimulus to sign up, drawn by the promise of getting crypto prizes valued at hundreds of dollars, all without cost. To enhance the attractiveness of the offer, fake claims of cooperation with a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these claims are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After following the ads, victims end up on a page filled with appealing offers. “Crypto starts with Sawtesla”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Sawtesla, “Start earning with Sawtesla – they look rather credible. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, scammers say that obtaining the promised bonus requires registration. And as nothing questionable happens at this point, unexperienced users happily keep on – especially since the reward 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 data, frauds 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, frauds bait folks for registration with bonuses. And all the personal info needed for it – username, email, crypto wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Only by gathering this data and selling it further into the Darknet, swindlers can earn quite a penny. Still, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, the promised bonus is not available to use right away. To make at least crypto purchases on the platform with it, 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

Obviously, any cryptocurrency operations require you to have funds on your account. With Sawtesla, users are also coerced to top up to claim the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates the majority of the cash flow to this fraudulent website. By topping up the account, users hope to get the promised gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start engaging on this website hoping to use all the credited funds 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 withdraw 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 scoundrels are naught on intentions to send you money. But to make the denial look more legitimate, they’ve made up a whole pack of reasons to decline the withdrawal request. Most of them repeat what KYC requirements say, but in this case they are here only to make the wireout impossible.

By asking for your personal info, frauds just stall hoping for you to accept the loss and stop contacting them. If you don’t – well, there are numerous other checks you would desperately need to undergo before getting your funds back. And every check will reveal 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 Sawtesla.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Sawtesla 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 timeline of the fraud, its masters may get in touch with you with specific documents. Alternatively, they may propose you to install “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to simplify access to your cryptocurrency funds. As we earlier figured out, these deceivers have no intent of restoring your funds. So, what do these emails and browser add-ons represent? Correct – this is another element of the fraudulent scheme designed to entice you into willingly installing harmful programs onto your system.

Both add-ons and attachments included to emails can function as a shell for diverse malicious software. In this scenario, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among all kinds of threats. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always greater than zero. As noted, their morality is of no concern, and their dignity is already deeply compromised. They have no principles to give up and aim to boost profits.

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