We Investigated Sneewex: Legit or Scam? The Facts

Recently, Sneewex.com website popped up, promoting itself as a place to store cryptocurrency and other assets securely. I managed to gather credible evidence that unmistakably indicates it is, in fact, a deceptive platform.

Regardless of the promises of the most user-friendly, dependable, and client-friendly service, Sneewex.com does not follow any of them. In fact, all this is just a golden wrap around a dirty scam, which takes your funds and never gives them back. Any stories about gifts, backing from celebrities etc are nowhere to be found as well.

Sneewex Scam Overview

Originally, Sneewex poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet platform with outstandingly low commission fees. Another highlighted marketing point for this site is backing from celebrities that are known in 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, frauds use AI-generated videos where those celebrities promote the scam as 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 glaring wrap around an obvious scam.

Sneewex Scam

To begin with, Sneewex copies the design of many equivalent pages. There are quite a few examples, like Navbitexchange, Fluntex or Cryptilon. They are totally undistinguishable in terms of visual elements, with slight discrepancies in the site header. Other particulars, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are identical. Most likely, all these deceptive websites are managed by a single gang of scoundrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Sneewex Scam Works?

Sneewex is a part of a significant cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Scammers who stand behind it use several website designs, which still share the identical 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 set up and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They primarily focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the marketing campaign begins. Using bots and paid ads (when possible), fraud actors boost the presence of their fraudulent activities to possible victims. And as I said, fraudsters do not shy away using generative AI for creating clips with the mentioned celebs 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 Sneewex in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users obtain an incentive to enroll, attracted by the assurance of receiving crypto benefits valued at hundreds of dollars, all free of charge. To enhance the appeal of the offer, fake claims of cooperation with a celebrity are added. As you may guess, these claims are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon clicking the promos, users end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with Sneewex”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Sneewex, “Start earning with Sneewex – they look rather authoritative. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, crooks say that retrieving the promised bonus requires registration. And since nothing concerning happens at this point, unaware users happily move on – especially as the bonus appears to be right behind the corner.

At this point, it is possible to skip the scam without any losses. Before you sign up using your personal info, swindrels will not be able to 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 mentioned, frauds bait folks into registration for bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – username, email, crypto wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Only 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, you cannot use the alleged bonus right away. To make it at least usable for cryptocurrency purchases, the user should top up the account with the sum of a bonus. And this is what starts the final stage of the scam.

Step 4: Requesting funds

It is obvious that any crypto operations require you to have capital on your account. With Sneewex, users are also coerced to top up to use the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates most of the money flow to this scam website. By topping up the account, users hope to get the committed gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start participating on this website hoping to use all the deposited funds and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the victim notices the issues. When comparing the real cryptocurrency wallet vs what the site 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

Needless to say that swindlers have 0 intentions to send you money. Though to make the denial look more realistic, they’ve elaborated a whole bunch of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Usually, they repeat what KYC requirements say, but for the Sneewex.com they are here only to make the wireout impossible.

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

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Sneewex 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 duration of the fraud, its masters may contact you with specific files. Alternatively, they may propose you to install “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your cryptocurrency assets. As we previously figured out, these scammers have no intent of returning your funds. So, what do these emails and browser extensions represent? Correct – this is another component of the deceptive plan designed to throw you into deliberately running destructive applications onto your device.

Both extensions and files included to emails can function as a shell for diverse malicious code. In this situation, I anticipate the presence of spyware and stealers among other kinds of malicious programs. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the probability is always significant. As noted, their morality is of negligible importance, and their dignity is already deeply compromised. They have no principles to lose and aim to maximize revenues.

Frequently asked questions