Is Saywes Legit or Another Scam? The Truth Revealed

Recently, Saywes.com site surfaced, promoting itself as a place to store cryptocurrency and other assets safely. I managed to gather reliable proof that clearly confirms it is, actually, a fraudulent site.

Despite the promises of the most easy, dependable, and customer-centric service, Saywes.com does not fulfill any of them. All this is just a gilded wrap around a clear scam, which steals your money and data and never returns them. Any stories about gifts, sponsorship from celebrities etc are non-existent as well.

Saywes Scam Overview

Originally, Saywes poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet service with outstandingly low commission fees. Another notable marketing point for this service is backing from celebrities that are known as crypto activists. 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, frauds use deepfake videos with those celebs promote 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 said in the introduction, all this is just a blatant wrap around an obvious scam.

Saywes Scam

First and foremost, Saywes shares the layout of many equivalent online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Deptox, Crypto or Coinved. They are entirely identical in terms of graphic elements, with minor discrepancies in the website header. Other details, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are the same. Probably, all these fraudulent online platforms are operated by the same gang of frauds.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Saywes Scam Works?

Saywes is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Rascals who stand behind it use various website designs, which still share the identical 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 legitimacy of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To initiate the scam, criminals set up and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They generally target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the marketing campaign commences. Employing bots and paid advertisements (when achievable), scam actors increase the presence of their deceptive activities to potential victims. And as I said, crooks do not disdain using deepfake for creating videos with the mentioned celebs that promote 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 Saywes in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users obtain an incentive to register, enticed by the assurance of receiving cryptocurrency rewards valued at thousands of dollars, all without cost. To augment the appeal of the offer, fake claims of cooperation with a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these assertions are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon clicking the ads, targets end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with Saywes”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Saywes, “Start earning with Saywes – they look rather credible. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, crooks say that getting the promised bonus requires registration. And as nothing questionable happens at this point, uninformed users happily proceed – especially since the gift appears to be right behind the corner.

At this point, it is possible to get away from the scam without any losses. Before you sign up using your personal info, crooks will not 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 said, scammers bait folks into registration for bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – email, username, cryptocurrency wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Solely 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 claimed bonus is not available for withdrawal right away. To make it at least usable for crypto purchases, the user should 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 Saywes, users are also forced to top up to get the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates most of the money flow to this scam site. By topping up the account, users hope to get the committed gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start trading on this site hoping to use all the credited money and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the problems start to surface. When keeping an eye on the real crypto wallet vs what the website says, you can spot 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

Needless to say that fraudsters are naught on intentions to give your money back. Though to make the fraud look more legitimate, they’ve made up a whole bunch of reasons to decline the wireout request. Most of them repeat what KYC regulations say, but in this case they are here exclusively to make the wireout impossible.

By requesting your personal info, deceivers just stall hoping for you to accept the loss 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 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 Saywes.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

• False Celebrity Sponsorship. Saywes often resorts to fake endorsements from celebrities such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mr. Beast, and Mark Zuckerberg. This fraudulent tactic extends to claiming partnerships with reputable companies like Coinbase, Binance, or MetaMask, despite lacking any genuine affiliations.
• Cryptocurrency-Only Payments. Saywes.com exclusively accepts payments in cryptocurrencies, rejecting traditional bank transfers and other methods. This approach not only masks the company’s identity but also eliminates the possibility of seeking refunds.
• Dubious Company Information. Saywes raises suspicion by withholding essential ownership, location, and registration details. Furthermore, the absence of legitimate contact information and the recent establishment of domain and social media pages intensify skepticism.
• Unsubstantiated Hype. Saywes.com employs groundless hype tactics, fabricating events like securing contracts with Coinbase or receiving endorsements from Elon Musk. These manipulative techniques aim to instill false confidence and encourage further investments.
• Potential Pyramid Scheme. The scam relies on a structure resembling a Ponzi scheme, leveraging a referral system spread through social media. However, only initial participants benefit, often at the expense of subsequent investors.
• Implausible Claims. Promising returns of 50-100-200%, Saywes preys on the desire for quick profits. Yet, the volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market makes such gains highly unlikely, definitively labeling Saywes as a scam.

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Saywes 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 timeline of the fraud, its masters may get in touch with you with specific documents. Alternatively, they may offer you to set up “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your cryptocurrency assets. As we earlier determined, these scoundrels have no plan of giving back your funds. So, what can these messages and browser add-ons represent? You guessed – this is another element of the scam designed to entice you into willingly running malicious software onto your system.

Both add-ons and files attached to emails can act as a shell for different malicious code. In this situation, I anticipate the presence of spyware and stealers among other kinds of threats. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the chance is always above zero. As noted, their ethics is of no concern, and their dignity is already deeply compromised. They have no scruples to lose and strive to maximize gains.

Frequently asked questions