The Truth About Starxgate: Legit or Scam? Our Review

Recently, Starxgate.com website surfaced, promoting itself as a place to store cryptocurrency and other assets securely. I managed to gather reliable evidence that clearly indicates it is, in truth, a deceptive site.

Regardless of the promises of the most convenient, reliable, and customer-centric service, Starxgate.com does not follow any of them. All this is just a shiny wrap around a clear scam, which steals your funds and never returns them. Any tales about gifts, backing from celebrities etc are absent as well.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

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Starxgate Scam Overview

Originally, Starxgate poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet platform with remarkably low commission fees. Another notable marketing point for this site is partnerships with 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 more realistic, rascals employ AI-generated videos where those celebrities promote the fake crypto service as if it was the best thing in the world. Obviously, Elon Musk is the most common choise for that. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a glaring wrap around an obvious scam.

Starxgate Scam

First and foremost, Starxgate shares the design of many similar pages. There are quite a few examples, like Clezix, Binefex or Albidex. They are entirely indistinguishable in terms of visual elements, with small discrepancies in the site header. Other particulars, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Most likely, all these fraudulent websites are managed by the same group of frauds.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Starxgate Scam Works?

Starxgate is a part of a large cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating vividly in 2023. Rascals who stand behind it use various website designs, which still share the similar overall layout. Another common 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 initiate the deceptive scheme, criminals set up and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They generally target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the marketing campaign starts. Employing bots and sponsored promotions (when achievable), fraud actors boost the exposure of their scam activities to potential victims. And as I said, scammers do not disdain using generative AI 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 Starxgate in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users receive an encouragement to sign up, drawn by the commitment of obtaining cryptocurrency rewards valued at hundreds of dollars, all free of charge. To enhance the attractiveness of the offer, fake claims of cooperation with a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these claims are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After following the ads, users end up on a page filled with attractive offers. “Crypto starts with Starxgate”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Starxgate, “Start earning with Starxgate – they look rather credible. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, crooks say that getting 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.

This is the last stage when it is possible to steer away from the scam without any losses. Before you sign up using your personal info, rascals will not earn even a penny from your presence on the website.

Step 3: Data Gathering

This is where the main fraud action begins. As I just said, deceivers bait folks for registration with bonuses. And all the personal data needed for it – username, email, cryptocurrency wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Solely by gathering this information 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 claimed bonus right away. To make at least crypto purchases on the platform with it, you need to top up the account with the sum of a bonus. At this point, the final stage of the scam kicks in.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Eventually, any crypto purchases require having money on your account. With Starxgate, users are also forced to top up to use the bonuses. And this is what creates most of the cash flow to this scam site. By topping up the account, users hope to get the pledged gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start participating on this website hoping to use all the transferred funds and withdraw them.

This is where the victim notices the problems. When keeping an eye on the real crypto wallet vs what the website says, you can notice that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to retrieve the capital from your account, the scam is finally uncovered to the user.

Step 5: Escaping from Funds Withdrawal

Needless to say that swindlers are naught on intentions to return your money. But to make the fraud look more realistic, they’ve elaborated a whole pack of reasons to decline the withdrawal request. Most of them repeat what Know Your Client guidelines say, but for the Starxgate.com they are here exclusively to make the wireout impossible.

By asking for 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 should go through before getting your money 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 Starxgate.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Starxgate 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 reach out to you with specific files. Alternatively, they may suggest you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your crypto assets. As we already figured out, these deceivers have no intent of returning your capital. So, what do these emails and browser extensions represent? Correct – that is another component of the fraudulent scheme designed to throw you into deliberately running malicious programs onto your device.

Both add-ons and files attached to email messages can act as a shell for various malicious software. In this scenario, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among all kinds of malware. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always existent. As noted, their ethics is of no concern, and their dignity is already severely tarnished. They have nothing to give up and strive to maximize gains.

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