We Looked at the Evidence: Is Swapxstake Legit or Scam?

Recently, Swapxstake.com site popped up, promoting itself as a platform where you can safely keep cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather credible supporting information that unmistakably reveals it is, in fact, a scam platform.

Despite the promises of the most user-friendly, reliable, and client-friendly service, Swapxstake.com does not offer any of them. In fact, all this is just a golden wrap around a clear scam, which takes your money and never returns them. Any tales about gifts, endorsement from celebrities etc are non-existent as well.

Swapxstake Scam Overview

Originally, Swapxstake poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with exceptionally low commission fees. Another bright selling point for this service is backing from celebrities that are known as crypto activists. Vitalii Buterin (Ethereum creator), Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet – the site says about being supported by them. To make these claims look more realistic, rascals use deepfake videos with those celebs promote the fraud as the best thing in the world. Obviously, 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.

Swapxstake Scam

First and foremost, Swapxstake repeats the appearance of numerous equivalent pages. There are quite a few examples, like Blockx, Buyxchannge or Fonterex. They are entirely identical in terms of visual elements, with slight discrepancies in the site header. Other details, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Probably, all these deceptive websites are operated by the same gang of scammers.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Swapxstake Scam Works?

Swapxstake is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Rascals 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 sophisticated 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 begin the deceptive scheme, criminals create and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They primarily focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign begins. Utilizing bots and sponsored advertisements (when achievable), scam actors boost the presence of their scam activities to potential victims. And as I said, scammers do not disdain using generative AI for creating videos with the aforementioned 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 Swapxstake in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon clicking the ads, targets end up on a page filled with appealing offers. “Crypto starts with Swapxstake”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Swapxstake, “Start earning with Swapxstake – they look rather authoritative. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, scammers say that getting the promoted bonus requires registration. And as nothing suspicious happens at this point, unaware users happily proceed – especially since the bonus appears to be right behind the corner.

At this point, it is possible to get away from the scam without any losses. Before you sign up using your personal info, crooks 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, frauds bait folks into signing up to get bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – email, username, crypto wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Only 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 promised bonus right away. To make at least cryptocurrency 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 begins.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Eventually, any cryptocurrency operations require having funds on your account. With Swapxstake, users are also compelled to top up to use the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates the majority of the money 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 website hoping to use all the deposited capital and withdraw them.

This is where the issues start to surface. 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 pull out the funds from your account, the scam is finally uncovered to the user.

Step 5: Escaping from Funds Withdrawal

Needless to say that scoundrels have 0 intentions to give your money back. But to make the fraud look more realistic, they’ve crafted a whole bunch of reasons to decline the wireout request. Most of them repeat what KYC guidelines say, but in this case they are here exclusively to make the wireout impossible.

By asking for your personal data, 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 money back. And each of these checks will uncover more and more information, 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 Swapxstake.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Swapxstake 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, fraudsters may reach out to you with specific documents. Alternatively, they may suggest you to set up “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your crypto savings. As we previously determined, these scammers have no intent of giving back your funds. So, what do these email messages and browser add-ons represent? Correct – that is another component of the deceptive plan designed to throw you into deliberately running destructive programs onto your computer.

Both plugins and attachments added to email messages can act as a carrier for different malicious code. In this situation, I foresee the presence of spyware and stealers among other forms of malicious programs. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always greater than zero. As noted, their morality is of negligible importance, and their dignity is already neck deep in mud. They have no principles to lose and aim to boost profits.

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