Saxful Review: Legit or Scam? Read This First

Recently, Saxful.com website appeared, promoting itself as a platform where you can safely store cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather reliable evidence that unmistakably reveals it is, in truth, a scam platform.

Despite the promises of the most user-friendly, trustworthy, and client-friendly service, Saxful.com does not fulfill any of them. All this is just a gilded wrap around a dirty scam, which takes your money and data and never gives them back. Any tales about gifts, endorsement from celebrities etc are non-existent as well.

Saxful Scam Overview

Originally, Saxful poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with exceptionally low commission fees. Another notable marketing point for this site 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 more realistic, rascals use AI-generated videos where those celebrities advertise the fake crypto service as the best thing in the world. For known reasons, Elon Musk is the most common choise for that. But, as I said in the introduction, all this is just a vivid wrap around an obvious scam.

Saxful Scam

Initially, Saxful shares the appearance of multiple similar websites. There are quite a few examples, like Nowexy, Vellcoin or Zentobit. They are totally indistinguishable in terms of graphic elements, with small discrepancies in the webpage header. Other details, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are identical. Most likely, all these scam sites are managed by the same group of fraudsters.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Saxful Scam Works?

Saxful is a part of a significant cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Swindlers who stand behind it use various website designs, which still share the similar 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 advanced 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 start the deceptive scheme, criminals establish and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They primarily aim at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the marketing campaign starts. Employing bots and sponsored ads (when possible), scam actors boost the exposure of their scam activities to possible victims. And as I said, scammers do not disdain using deepfake for creating videos with the aforementioned celebs that promote their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, swindlers claim the bonus for every user who enrolls the service immediately.

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

Users get an encouragement to sign up, enticed by the promise of getting cryptocurrency benefits valued at hundreds of dollars, all for free. To enhance the appeal of the offer, false claims of cooperation with a celebrity are added. As you may guess, these claims are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After clicking the ads, users end up on a page filled with attractive offers. “Crypto starts with Saxful”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Saxful, “Start earning with Saxful – they look rather credible. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, scammers say that claiming the pledged bonus requires registration. And since nothing questionable happens at this point, unaware users happily proceed – especially as 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 register using your personal information, swindrels will not be able to earn even a nickel from your presence on the website.

Step 3: Data Gathering

This is where the main fraud action begins. As I just said, scammers bait folks into signing up to get bonuses. And all the personal data needed for it – email, username, crypto wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Solely 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, you cannot use the alleged bonus right away. To make it at least usable for cryptocurrency purchases, you need to top up the account with the sum of a bonus. And this is what starts the final step of the scam.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Obviously, any crypto purchases require you to have capital on your account. With Saxful, users are also coerced to top up to claim the bonuses. And this is what creates the majority of the cash flow to this fraudulent website. By topping up the account, users hope to get the pledged gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start trading on this website hoping to use all the deposited money and withdraw them.

This is where the victim notices the problems. 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 retrieve the capital 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 have no intentions to return your money. Though to make the fraud look more realistic, they’ve crafted a whole bunch of reasons to decline the wireout request. Most of them repeat what Know Your Client regulations say, but for the Saxful.com they are here only to make the wireout impossible.

By requesting your personal information, 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 grand back. And every check will uncover more and more information, 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 Saxful.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Saxful 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 to Authorities. Your initial action should involve reporting the scam to local authorities responsible for addressing financial fraud. Additionally, reach out to wallet providers and engage with the technical support teams of social networks. This collective effort raises the bar for the scammers’ operations.
• Inform Your Inner Circle. Extend your impact by sharing information about the scam with your close friends. Similar to notifying authorities, this dissemination of details curbs the scammers’ potential to deceive.
• Document the Trail. Assemble a comprehensive record by capturing screenshots and archiving all relevant website-related data. This encompasses the website URL, screenshots of the main page, login interface, end-user license agreement (EULA), account top-up menu, and wallet addresses. These materials offer invaluable leads for authorities in their pursuit of the scammers.
• Explore Refund Possibilities. While cryptocurrency payments may not typically align with traditional bank refund policies, it’s worthwhile to explore potential refund avenues under specific circumstances. Maintain a positive outlook until you secure confirmation of the loss.
• Transform Loss into Insight. Shift your focus from the financial loss to gaining wisdom. Consider your loss as an investment in comprehending the tactics employed by crypto scam sites. Familiarize yourself with their distinctive traits, the methods they employ to entice individuals, and the extravagant pledges they make. This knowledge equips you to recognize and avoid future traps, minimizing the risk of enduring further 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 fraud, its actors may get in touch with you with specific files. Alternatively, they may propose you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to streamline access to your crypto savings. As we previously figured out, these scoundrels have no intent of returning your capital. So, what can these emails and browser extensions represent? Correct – this is another side of the fraudulent scheme designed to entice you into willingly installing harmful software onto your computer.

Both plugins and files attached to email messages can act as a shell for different malware. In this situation, I foresee the presence of spyware and stealers among other types of threats. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always significant. As noted, their ethics is of negligible importance, and their dignity is already deeply compromised. They have nothing to give up and intend to maximize revenues.

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