Investigating Sezcy: Legit or Scam? The Truth Revealed

Recently, Sezcy.com service appeared, promoting itself as a place to store cryptocurrency and other assets safely. I managed to gather reliable supporting information that unmistakably indicates it is, in fact, a scam site.

Regardless of the promises of the most convenient, trustworthy, and client-friendly service, Sezcy.com does not follow any of them. All this is just a shiny wrap around a blatant scam, which takes your money and data and never returns them. Any tales about bonuses, backing from celebrities etc are absent as well.

Sezcy Scam Overview

Originally, Sezcy poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet platform with outstandingly low commission fees. Another notable selling point for this site is backing from celebrities that have relation to the crypto world. Vitalii Buterin (Ethereum creator), Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet – the site claims having significant support from them. To make these claims look real, rascals use deepfake videos with those celebs promote the fraud as the best thing in the world. For obvious reasons, Elon Musk is the most common choise for that. But, as I said in the introduction, all this is just a blatant wrap around an obvious scam.

Sezcy Scam

First and foremost, Sezcy shares the appearance of many similar online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Pioniz, Payxup or Tutulex. They are totally indistinguishable in terms of visual elements, with small discrepancies in the website header. Other specific elements, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are matching. Most likely, all these deceptive online platforms are led by the same group of scammers.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Sezcy Scam Works?

Sezcy is a part of a large cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Scammers who stand behind it use several website designs, which still share the same 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 complex 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 initiate the fraud, criminals create and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They generally target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign begins. Utilizing bots and paid ads (when feasible), scam actors boost the presence of their deceptive activities to possible victims. And as I said, scammers do not shy away using deepfake for creating videos with the aforementioned 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 Sezcy in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users receive an encouragement to register, drawn by the assurance of obtaining cryptocurrency prizes valued at hundreds of dollars, all for free. To augment the appeal of the offer, false claims of sponsorship by a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these assertions are entirely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After clicking the promos, targets end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with Sezcy”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Sezcy, “Start earning with Sezcy – they look rather credible. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, crooks say that retrieving the promoted bonus requires registration. And since nothing concerning happens at this point, uninformed users happily keep on – especially since 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 data, frauds will not 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 mentioned, scammers bait folks into signing up to get bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – email, username, cryptocurrency wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Exclusively by gathering this information and selling it further into the Darknet, crooks 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 at least cryptocurrency purchases on the platform with it, you need to top up the account with the equivalent sum. And this is what initiates the final stage of the scam.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Obviously, any crypto purchases require having funds on your account. With Sezcy, users are also compelled to top up to claim the bonuses. And this is what creates most of the money flow to this fraudulent 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 credited funds and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the problems start to surface. When keeping an eye on the real cryptocurrency wallet vs what the website says, you can spot that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to withdraw 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 swindlers are naught on intentions to give your money back. Though to make the fraud look more legitimate, they’ve made up a whole pack of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Usually, they repeat what Know Your Client guidelines say, but in this case they are here exclusively to make the withdrawal impossible.

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

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Sezcy 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, rascals may contact you with particular files. Alternatively, they may propose you to set up “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to simplify access to your crypto assets. As we already figured out, these deceivers have no intent of giving back your capital. So, what do these email messages and browser extensions represent? You guessed it right – that is another component of the deceptive plan designed to entice you into willingly running malicious software onto your computer.

Both plugins and attachments included to email messages can act as a shell for different malicious software. In this situation, I anticipate the presence of spyware and stealers among other types of malware. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the chance is always above zero. As stated, their conscience is of negligible importance, and their dignity is already seriously marred. They have no scruples to give up and aim to boost gains.

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