Stagexswap Review: Legit or Scam? Read This First

Recently, Stagexswap.com site surfaced, promoting itself as a platform to store cryptocurrency and other assets safely. I managed to gather reliable evidence that clearly confirms it is, actually, a deceptive platform.

Despite the promises of the most convenient, dependable, and client-friendly service, Stagexswap.com does not follow any of them. In fact, all this is just a gilded wrap around a blatant scam, which steals your funds and never returns them. Any tales about gifts, sponsorship from celebrities etc are absent as well.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

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Stagexswap Scam Overview

Originally, Stagexswap poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with remarkably low commission fees. Another highlighted marketing point for this service is backing from celebrities that are known as crypto activists. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Vitalii Buterin, 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 if it was the best thing in the world. For obvious reasons, Elon Musk is the most common among them. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a blatant wrap around a transparent scam.

Stagexswap Scam

First and foremost, Stagexswap copies the design of many equivalent online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Spaceyam, Sloxcoin or Qwantbit. They are completely undistinguishable in terms of graphic elements, with slight discrepancies in the webpage header. Other particulars, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Most likely, all these deceptive websites are managed by a single team of scammers.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Stagexswap Scam Works?

Stagexswap is a part of a large cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Scammers who stand behind it use various website designs, which still share the similar 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 advanced psychological tricks that make the user believe in the authenticity of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To start the deceptive scheme, criminals create and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They mainly focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the marketing campaign starts. Using bots and paid ads (when possible), fraud actors increase the presence of their scam activities to potential victims. And as I said, fraudsters do not disdain using generative AI for creating clips with the mentioned celebrities that promote their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, swindlers claim the bonus for every user who enrolls the service immediately.

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

Users get an incentive to sign up, enticed by the assurance of receiving cryptocurrency rewards valued at thousands of dollars, all free of charge. To augment the attractiveness of the offer, false claims of sponsorship by a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these claims are entirely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After clicking the promos, users end up on a page filled with attractive offers. “Crypto starts with Stagexswap”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Stagexswap, “Start earning with Stagexswap – they look rather credible. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, scammers say that getting the pledged bonus requires registration. And since nothing concerning happens at this point, uninformed users happily proceed – especially as the gift appears to be right behind the corner.

At this point, it is possible to steer away from the scam without any losses. Before you sign up using your personal information, swindrels 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, frauds bait folks into registration to get bonuses. And all the personal data needed for it – email, username, cryptocurrency wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Exclusively by gathering this data and selling it further into the Darknet, fraudsters 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 crypto purchases on the platform with it, the user should top up the account with the equivalent sum. At this point, the final stage of the scam kicks in.

Step 4: Requesting funds

It is obvious that any crypto operations require having money on your account. With Stagexswap, users are also forced to top up to get the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates the majority of the money flow to this fraudulent site. By topping up the account, users hope to get the promised gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start engaging on this site hoping to use all the transferred 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 notice that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to withdraw the money from your account, the scam is finally uncovered to the user.

Step 5: Escaping from Funds Withdrawal

Needless to say that scoundrels are naught on intentions to send you money. Though to make it look more realistic, they’ve developed a whole pack of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Usually, they repeat what KYC regulations say, but for the Stagexswap.com they are here exclusively to make the withdrawal impossible.

By requesting your personal data, frauds just stall hoping for you to understand that you’ve been scammed and stop contacting them. If you don’t – well, there are numerous other checks you would desperately need to undergo before getting your money 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 Stagexswap.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Stagexswap 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 scam, its actors may reach out to you with specific files. Alternatively, they may offer you to set up “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to simplify access to your crypto funds. As we previously figured out, these deceivers have no intention of restoring your capital. So, what do these email messages and browser add-ons represent? Correct – this is another component of the scam designed to throw you into willingly installing malicious programs onto your device.

Both extensions and attachments attached to emails can function as a carrier for different malware. In this scenario, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among other types of malware. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always significant. As stated, their morality is of no concern, and their reputation is already neck deep in mud. They have no scruples to lose and intend to maximize gains.

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