The Tonexy Scam – Don’t Become the Next Victim

Recently, Tonexy.com site popped up, promoting itself as a place to store cryptocurrency and other assets safely. I managed to gather credible supporting information that clearly confirms it is, in fact, a fraudulent service.

Regardless of the promises of the most convenient, dependable, and customer-centric service, Tonexy.com does not fulfill any of them. In fact, all this is just a golden wrap around a blatant scam, which steals your money and data and never returns them. Any stories about bonuses, endorsement from celebrities etc are non-existent as well.

Tonexy Scam Overview

Originally, Tonexy poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet service with exceptionally low commission fees. Another notable selling point for this site is backing from celebrities that are known as crypto activists. 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, frauds use deepfake videos where those celebrities advertise 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 blatant wrap around an obvious scam.

Tonexy Scam

To begin with, Tonexy repeats the layout of many equivalent pages. There are quite a few examples, like Trafficninjasprivate, Xidxers or Vexorup. They are completely indistinguishable in terms of visual elements, with small discrepancies in the website header. Other details, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are the same. Presumably, all these scam sites are operated by the same group of fraudsters.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Tonexy Scam Works?

Tonexy is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Scammers who stand behind it use several 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 advanced 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 begin the scam, criminals establish and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They primarily aim at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign begins. Utilizing bots and sponsored advertisements (when achievable), scam actors intensify the exposure of their fraudulent activities to potential victims. And as I said, crooks do not shy away using generative AI for creating videos with the aforementioned 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 Tonexy in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users receive an incentive to register, attracted by the assurance of getting cryptocurrency prizes valued at thousands of dollars, all for free. To augment the appeal of the offer, fake claims of cooperation with a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these assertions are entirely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon following the promotions, users end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with Tonexy”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Tonexy, “Start earning with Tonexy – they look rather credible. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, crooks say that obtaining the promised bonus requires registration. And as nothing concerning happens at this point, uninformed users happily proceed – especially as the reward 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, rascals 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, scammers bait folks for registration with bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – email, username, crypto wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Solely by gathering this data and selling it further into the Darknet, fraudsters can earn quite a penny. Nonetheless, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, the promised bonus is not available to use right away. To make it at least usable for crypto purchases, you need to 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 purchases require having capital on your account. With Tonexy, users are also forced to top up to claim the bonuses. And this 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 participating on this site hoping to use all the deposited funds and withdraw them.

This is where the first obvious issues start to surface. When keeping an eye on the real crypto wallet vs what the site says, you can spot that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to pull out the capital from your account, the scam is finally uncovered to the user.

Step 5: Escaping from Funds Withdrawal

There’s no need to explain that swindlers are naught on intentions to return your money. Though to make the fraud look more realistic, they’ve developed a whole pack of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Most of them repeat what KYC regulations say, but for the Tonexy.com they are here exclusively to make the wireout impossible.

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

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Tonexy 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.

• Immediate Reporting. Your initial step should involve promptly notifying local authorities specializing in financial fraud. Extend your reach by reaching out to wallet providers and engaging with social networks’ technical support teams. These actions serve to raise the bar for the scammers’ operations.
• Share among Friends. Amplify your efforts by informing your close friends about the scam. Similar to informing authorities, this dissemination of information restricts the scammers’ potential victim pool.
• Preserve Crucial Information. Compile a comprehensive evidence archive by capturing screenshots and archiving all relevant website-related data. Collect the website URL, screenshots of the main page, login interface, end-user license agreement (EULA), account top-up menu, and wallet addresses. These records could provide vital clues for authorities in their pursuit of the scammers.
• Exploring Refund Options. While most banks’ refund policies may exclude cryptocurrency payments, it’s advisable to explore potential refund avenues under specific circumstances. Maintain hope until you obtain confirmation of the loss.
• Transform Loss into Knowledge. Turn your financial setback into an opportunity for growth. View your loss as an investment in understanding the strategies employed by crypto scam sites. Familiarize yourself with their telltale characteristics, the methods they employ to entice individuals, and the extravagant promises they make. Equipped with this insight, you’ll be well-prepared to spot and evade future traps without suffering additional 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 course of the scam, its actors may contact you with particular files. Alternatively, they may propose you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to simplify access to your crypto savings. As we earlier figured out, these scoundrels have no intention of returning your money. So, what can these messages and browser extensions represent? Correct – this is another element of the deceptive plan designed to entice you into deliberately installing destructive applications onto your device.

Both extensions and attachments included to emails can function as a shell for diverse malware. In this scenario, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among other forms of threats. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always existent. As stated, their ethics is of negligible importance, and their reputation is already deeply compromised. They have nothing to give up and aim to maximize revenues.

Frequently asked questions