The Telumex Scam – What You Need To Know

Recently, Telumex.com service surfaced, promoting itself as a place where you can safely keep cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather reliable supporting information that clearly confirms it is, actually, a fraudulent platform.

Regardless of the promises of the most convenient, trustworthy, and client-friendly service, Telumex.com does not offer any of them. In fact, all this is just a golden wrap around a blatant scam, which steals your money and never returns them. Any tales about gifts, endorsement from celebrities etc are nowhere to be found as well.

Telumex Scam Overview

Originally, Telumex poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with remarkably low commission fees. Another highlighted selling point for this site is backing from celebrities that are known as crypto activists. Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Vitalii Buterin, Jeff Bezos – the site claims having significant support from them. To make these claims look real, con actors use AI-generated videos with those celebs promote the fake crypto service as the best thing in the world. For known reasons, Elon Musk is the most common among them. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a glaring wrap around a transparent scam.

Telumex Scam

First and foremost, Telumex shares the appearance of many similar pages. There are quite a few examples, like Taxtay, Solstrade or Btcdff. They are totally identical in terms of graphic elements, with minor discrepancies in the webpage header. Other particulars, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are the same. Most likely, all these scam sites are managed by a single gang of scoundrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Telumex Scam Works?

Telumex is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating vividly in 2023. Swindlers who stand behind it use numerous 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 start the deceptive scheme, criminals create and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They mainly target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the marketing campaign starts. Utilizing bots and sponsored advertisements (when possible), scam actors intensify the exposure of their fraudulent activities to possible victims. And as I said, crooks do not shy away using deepfake for creating videos with the mentioned celebrities that advertise their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, swindlers claim the bonus for every user who registers the service immediately.

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

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon clicking the ads, victims end up on a page filled with attractive offers. “Crypto starts with Telumex”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Telumex, “Start earning with Telumex – they look rather reliable. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, scammers say that getting the promised bonus requires registration. And as nothing suspicious happens at this point, unaware users happily move on – especially as the gift 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 data, rascals will not be able to 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 said, scammers bait folks into signing up for bonuses. And all the personal data needed for it – email, username, crypto wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Exclusively by gathering this info and selling it further into the Darknet, swindlers 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, the user should top up the account with the sum of a bonus. And this is what starts the final step of the scam.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Eventually, any crypto purchases require you to have capital on your account. With Telumex, users are also coerced to top up to claim the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates most of the cash flow to this fraudulent website. 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 deposited capital and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the victim notices the problems. When keeping an eye on the actual 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 capital 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 send you money. Though to make the denial look more legitimate, they’ve developed a whole bunch of reasons to decline the wireout request. Usually, they repeat what Know Your Client guidelines say, but for the Telumex.com they are here only to make the wireout impossible.

By requesting your personal information, scammers 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 reveal 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 Telumex.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Telumex 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.

• Secure Your Actions. Begin by promptly reporting the scam to appropriate local authorities tasked with handling financial fraud. Notify wallet providers and engage with social networks’ technical support teams. By taking these measures, you contribute to making the scammers’ operations significantly more difficult.
• Expand Awareness. Extend your efforts by sharing the scam information with your close friends. This action has a parallel effect to reporting to the authorities, as disseminating details about fraudulent crypto services reduces the potential victims they can deceive.
• Gather Evidence. Preserve comprehensive evidence by capturing screenshots and saving all pertinent data linked to the deceptive website. Collect the URL, screenshots of the main page, login interface, end-user license agreement (EULA), account top-up menu, and wallet addresses. These materials could prove invaluable for authorities in their pursuit of the scammers.
• Explore Refund Possibilities. While cryptocurrency payments generally fall outside the scope of refund policies within most banks, it’s worth investigating the potential for a refund in specific circumstances. Maintain optimism until you definitively confirm the loss.
• Convert Mistake into Wisdom. Transform your financial setback into a valuable learning experience. Treat your loss as an investment in understanding the tactics of crypto scam sites. Familiarize yourself with their key characteristics, how they lure individuals, and the grandiose promises they make. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll be well-equipped to recognize and avoid falling into future traps without incurring further losses.

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 scam, fraudsters may get in touch with you with particular files. Alternatively, they may propose you to set up “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to simplify access to your crypto funds. As we earlier determined, these scammers have no intent of restoring your capital. So, what do these messages and browser plugins represent? You guessed – this is another element of the scam designed to entice you into willingly running destructive programs onto your computer.

Both extensions and files attached to email messages can function as a shell for diverse malicious code. In this scenario, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among other kinds of malware. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the chance is always significant. As stated, their conscience is of no concern, and their reputation is already deeply compromised. They have nothing to lose and strive to maximize gains.

Frequently asked questions