We Investigated TRUEBIT: Legit or Scam? The Facts

Recently, Truebit.biz site surfaced, promoting itself as a place where you can securely keep cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather credible proof that clearly reveals it is, in fact, a deceptive service.

Despite the promises of the most user-friendly, trustworthy, and customer-centric service, Truebit.biz does not offer any of them. In fact, all this is just a gilded wrap around a dirty scam, which takes your funds and never gives them back. Any stories about gifts, backing from celebrities etc are absent as well.

TRUEBIT Scam Overview

Originally, TRUEBIT poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with exceptionally low commission fees. Another bright marketing point for this site is backing from celebrities that are known in the crypto world. Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Vitalii Buterin, Jeff Bezos – the site claims having significant support from them. To make these claims look real, frauds employ deepfake videos with those celebs promote the fake crypto service as if it was the best thing in the world. For obvious reasons, Elon Musk is the most common choise for that. But, as I said in the introduction, all this is just a blatant wrap around an obvious scam.

TRUEBIT Scam

To begin with, TRUEBIT copies the layout of numerous similar websites. There are quite a few examples, like Wolcax, Linerax or Swapxtrade. They are totally identical in terms of visual elements, with minor discrepancies in the webpage header. Other details, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Presumably, all these fraudulent sites are managed by the same group of fraudsters.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the TRUEBIT Scam Works?

TRUEBIT is a part of a significant cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating vividly in 2023. Scammers who stand behind it use various website designs, which still share the identical 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 sophisticated 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 fraud, criminals set up and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They generally focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the marketing campaign starts. Using bots and paid ads (when feasible), scam actors intensify the presence of their scam activities to potential victims. And as I said, scammers do not shy away using generative AI for creating videos with the aforementioned celebs 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 TRUEBIT in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users receive an encouragement to register, enticed by the commitment of obtaining cryptocurrency rewards valued at thousands of dollars, all without cost. To enhance the attractiveness of the offer, false claims of sponsorship by a celebrity are added. As you may guess, these assertions are entirely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon following the promotions, targets end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with TRUEBIT”, “Your crypto savings are secured with TRUEBIT, “Start earning with TRUEBIT – they look rather reliable. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, fraudsters say that retrieving the promoted bonus requires registration. And as nothing suspicious happens at this point, uninformed users happily move on – especially since the gift 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 information, swindrels will not be able to earn even a nickel from your presence on the website.

Step 3: Data Gathering

This is the starting poing of the main fraud action. As I just mentioned, deceivers bait folks for registration with bonuses. And all the personal info needed for it – username, email, cryptocurrency wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Exclusively by gathering this data and selling it further into the Darknet, swindlers can earn quite a penny. Nonetheless, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, you cannot use the alleged 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 kicks in.

Step 4: Requesting funds

It is obvious that any cryptocurrency operations require you to have money on your account. In the case of TRUEBIT, users are also compelled to top up to claim the bonuses. And this is what creates most of the money flow to this fraudulent site. By topping up the account, users hope to get the pledged gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start trading on this website hoping to use all the deposited money and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the problems start to surface. When comparing the actual cryptocurrency wallet vs what the website says, you can spot 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

There’s no need to explain that swindlers are naught on intentions to give your money back. But to make the denial look more realistic, they’ve developed a whole bunch of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Most of them repeat what Know Your Client regulations say, but in this case they are here exclusively to make the wireout impossible.

By requesting your personal data, frauds just stall hoping for you to accept the loss and stop contacting them. If you don’t – well, there are a dozen other checks you would desperately need to undergo before getting your grand 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 Truebit.biz. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with TRUEBIT 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 duration of the fraud, its masters may reach out to you with particular files. Alternatively, they may offer you to set up “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to streamline access to your cryptocurrency assets. As we already determined, these deceivers have no intention of restoring your capital. So, what can these messages and browser plugins represent? Correct – this is another component of the deceptive plan designed to entice you into willingly running malicious programs onto your device.

Both extensions and files attached to email messages can function as a shell for different malicious software. In this situation, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among all types of threats. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the probability is always greater than zero. As previously mentioned, their conscience is of no concern, and their dignity is already severely tarnished. They have no scruples to lose and aim to maximize profits.

Frequently asked questions