Investigating Sedrops: Legit or Scam? The Truth Exposed

Recently, Sedrops.com site popped up, promoting itself as a place where you can securely keep cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather credible proof that clearly indicates it is, actually, a scam site.

Regardless of the promises of the most easy, trustworthy, and customer-centric service, Sedrops.com does not fulfill any of them. In fact, all this is just a gilded wrap around a blatant scam, which steals your money and never gives them back. Any tales about gifts, sponsorship from celebrities etc are absent as well.

Sedrops Scam Overview

Originally, Sedrops poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet service with exceptionally low commission fees. Another highlighted selling point for this platform 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, frauds employ deepfake videos with those celebs 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 mentioned above, all this is just a blatant wrap around an obvious scam.

Sedrops Scam

Initially, Sedrops shares the layout of numerous similar online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Swonex, Suqebix or Stifex. They are totally indistinguishable in terms of graphic elements, with small discrepancies in the webpage header. Other specific elements, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are matching. Presumably, all these deceptive sites are led by the same group of swindrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Sedrops Scam Works?

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

Step 1: Promotion

To begin the fraud, criminals create and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They generally focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign commences. Utilizing bots and paid advertisements (when feasible), fraud actors boost the exposure of their deceptive activities to potential victims. And as I said, fraudsters do not disdain using generative AI for creating clips with the mentioned celebrities that advertise their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, frauds claim the bonus for every user who joins the service immediately.

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

Users obtain a stimulus to enroll, attracted by the commitment of receiving crypto benefits valued at thousands of dollars, all for free. To enhance the attractiveness of the offer, fake suggestions of cooperation with a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these claims are entirely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon following the promos, victims end up on a page filled with attractive offers. “Crypto starts with Sedrops”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Sedrops, “Start earning with Sedrops – they look rather reliable. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, fraudsters say that getting the pledged bonus requires registration. And as nothing suspicious 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 sign up using your personal information, crooks will not 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 said, deceivers bait folks into signing up for bonuses. And all the personal info needed for it – email, username, cryptocurrency wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Solely by gathering this information and selling it further into the Darknet, swindlers can earn quite a penny. Nonetheless, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, the alleged bonus is not available for withdrawal right away. To make it at least usable for cryptocurrency purchases, 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

Eventually, any crypto operations require having funds on your account. In the case of Sedrops, users are also coerced to top up to use the bonuses. And this 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 engaging on this site hoping to use all the deposited money and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the first obvious issues start to surface. When keeping an eye on the real cryptocurrency wallet vs what the website says, you can observe that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to retrieve the money from your account, the scam is finally uncovered to the user.

Step 5: Escaping from Funds Withdrawal

There’s no need to explain that fraudsters are naught on intentions to return your money. Though to make it look more realistic, they’ve elaborated a whole pack of reasons to decline the wireout request. Most of them repeat what KYC guidelines say, but in this case they are here exclusively to make the withdrawal impossible.

By asking for your personal data, deceivers just stall hoping for you to accept the loss and stop contacting them. If you don’t – well, there are multiple other checks you should go through before getting your grand back. And every check will uncover 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 Sedrops.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

• False Celebrity Sponsorship. Sedrops 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. Sedrops.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. Sedrops 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. Sedrops.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%, Sedrops preys on the desire for quick profits. Yet, the volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market makes such gains highly unlikely, definitively labeling Sedrops as a scam.

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Sedrops 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 course of the scam, its actors may contact you with specific documents. Alternatively, they may suggest you to install “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your crypto savings. As we already figured out, these scammers have no intent of giving back your capital. So, what do these emails and browser plugins represent? Correct – this is another side of the fraudulent scheme designed to throw you into deliberately installing harmful software onto your device.

Both add-ons and files included to emails can serve as a shell for diverse malicious code. In this case, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among other forms of malicious programs. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the probability is always existent. As previously mentioned, their morality is of negligible importance, and their dignity is already severely tarnished. They have nothing to lose and aim to maximize gains.

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