We Investigated Setokit: Legit or Scam? The Facts

Recently, Setokit.com site surfaced, promoting itself as a platform to store cryptocurrency and other assets safely. I managed to gather reliable evidence that unmistakably indicates it is, in fact, a deceptive site.

Regardless of the promises of the most easy, reliable, and client-friendly service, Setokit.com does not fulfill any of them. In fact, all this is just a golden wrap around a clear scam, which steals your money and never returns them. Any stories about bonuses, endorsement from celebrities etc are non-existent as well.

Setokit Scam Overview

Originally, Setokit poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with exceptionally low commission fees. Another highlighted marketing point for this site is backing from celebrities that are known in the crypto world. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Vitalii Buterin, Warren Buffet – the site says about being supported by them. To make these claims look real, rascals use deepfake videos with those celebs advertise 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 mentioned above, all this is just a vivid wrap around an obvious scam.

Setokit Scam

To begin with, Setokit copies the design of numerous equivalent websites. There are quite a few examples, like Coinsguru, Selobit or Greynex. They are entirely indistinguishable in terms of graphic elements, with slight discrepancies in the site header. Other details, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are identical. Probably, all these scam websites are operated by the same team of swindrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Setokit Scam Works?

Setokit is a part of a large cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Swindlers who stand behind it use several website designs, which still share the similar overall layout. Another shared 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 begin the scam, criminals set up and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They primarily target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign commences. Employing bots and sponsored advertisements (when achievable), scam actors increase the exposure of their fraudulent activities to possible victims. And as I said, fraudsters do not shy away using deepfake for creating clips with the aforementioned celebs that promote 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 Setokit in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After following the ads, users end up on a page filled with appealing offers. “Crypto starts with Setokit”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Setokit, “Start earning with Setokit – they look rather reliable. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, scammers say that claiming the promised bonus requires registration. And as nothing concerning happens at this point, unexperienced users happily keep on – especially since the reward appears to be right behind the corner.

At this point, it is possible to steer away from the scam without any losses. Before you register using your personal data, rascals 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, scammers bait folks into signing up to get bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – username, email, crypto wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Solely by gathering this info and selling it further into the Darknet, fraudsters can earn quite a penny. Nonetheless, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, you cannot use the promised 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. At this point, the final stage of the scam begins.

Step 4: Requesting funds

It is obvious that any cryptocurrency operations require having capital on your account. With Setokit, users are also compelled to top up to get the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates most of the cash 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 transferred money and withdraw them.

This is where the first obvious issues start to surface. When keeping an eye on the actual cryptocurrency 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

There’s no need to explain that fraudsters are naught on intentions to return your money. But to make the fraud look more realistic, they’ve elaborated a whole bunch of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Usually, they repeat what KYC guidelines say, but in this case they are here exclusively to make the withdrawal impossible.

By asking for your personal info, scammers 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 funds back. And every check will uncover more and more info of yours, which – you guessed it right – will be then marketed 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 Setokit.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Setokit 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 actors may get in touch with you with specific files. Alternatively, they may offer you to set up “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your crypto savings. As we already determined, these deceivers have no intent of returning your funds. So, what can these emails and browser plugins represent? Correct – that is another component of the scam designed to entice you into deliberately running malicious applications onto your system.

Both plugins and attachments attached to email messages can function as a carrier for different malicious code. In this scenario, I anticipate the presence of spyware and stealers among all forms of malicious programs. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the probability is always above zero. As previously mentioned, their conscience is of no concern, and their dignity is already seriously marred. They have no scruples to give up and aim to maximize profits.

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