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

Recently, Trustdew.com site surfaced, promoting itself as a platform where you can securely keep cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather credible supporting information that clearly confirms it is, in fact, a deceptive site.

Regardless of the promises of the most convenient, reliable, and client-friendly service, Trustdew.com does not follow any of them. All this is just a gilded wrap around a blatant scam, which takes your funds and never returns them. Any tales about gifts, sponsorship from celebrities etc are absent as well.

Trustdew Scam Overview

Originally, Trustdew poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet platform with outstandingly low commission fees. Another bright selling point for this site is partnerships with celebrities that have relation to the crypto world. 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 real, con actors use deepfake videos with those celebs promote the scam as the best thing in the world. For obvious reasons, Elon Musk is the most common among them. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a vivid wrap around a transparent scam.

Trustdew Scam

To begin with, Trustdew shares the appearance of numerous similar pages. There are quite a few examples, like Telonax, Jambeast or Xplatzen. They are entirely identical in terms of visual elements, with slight discrepancies in the webpage header. Other particulars, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are the same. Probably, all these scam sites are managed by the same team of fraudsters.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Trustdew Scam Works?

Trustdew is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating vividly in 2023. Swindlers who stand behind it use various website designs, which still share the similar 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 validity of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To initiate the scam, criminals create and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They primarily target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign commences. Utilizing bots and paid ads (when achievable), fraud actors increase the visibility of their fraudulent activities to possible victims. And as I said, crooks do not disdain using deepfake for creating videos with the aforementioned 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 Trustdew in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users get a stimulus to register, drawn by the commitment of receiving crypto rewards valued at hundreds of dollars, all for free. To enhance the appeal of the offer, fake suggestions of sponsorship by a celebrity are added. As you may guess, these claims are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After clicking the promotions, users end up on a page filled with attractive offers. “Crypto starts with Trustdew”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Trustdew, “Start earning with Trustdew – they look rather reliable. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, fraudsters say that unlocking the promoted bonus requires registration. And as nothing questionable happens at this point, unaware users happily move on – especially as the gift appears to be right behind the corner.

This is the last stage when it is possible to get away from the scam without any losses. Before you sign up using your personal information, 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 for registration with bonuses. And all the personal data needed for it – email, username, crypto wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Exclusively by gathering this data and selling it further into the Darknet, fraudsters can earn quite a penny. Still, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, the claimed bonus is not available to use 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 begins.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Obviously, any crypto purchases require having funds on your account. In the case of Trustdew, users are also compelled to top up to get the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates most of the cash flow to this scam website. By topping up the account, users hope to get the pledged gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start trading on this site hoping to use all the credited money and withdraw them.

This is where the issues start to surface. When comparing 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 retrieve the funds 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 give your money back. Though to make the fraud look more legitimate, they’ve crafted a whole bunch of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Usually, they 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 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 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 Trustdew.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

• Unsubstantiated Credibility. Trustdew employs fraudulent celebrity endorsements, often featuring names like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mr. Beast, and Mark Zuckerberg. These false claims extend to fictitious partnerships with reputable entities like Coinbase, Binance, or MetaMask, despite the absence of genuine connections.
• Implausible Earnings Claims. Promising remarkable returns of 50-100-200%, Trustdew exploits the longing for quick profits. However, such gains are unrealistic within the volatile cryptocurrency landscape, unequivocally identifying Trustdew as a scam.
• Dubious Corporate Information. Trustdew arouses suspicion by providing inadequate documentation about ownership, location, and registration. Furthermore, the lack of legitimate contact information and the recent registration of domain and social media profiles deepen skepticism.
• Exclusive Cryptocurrency Payments. Trustdew.com solely accepts payments in cryptocurrencies, refraining from traditional bank transfers and other payment methods. This approach not only shrouds the company’s identity but also prevents the possibility of requesting refunds.
• Potential Pyramid Scheme. The scam relies on a Ponzi-like referral structure disseminated through social media. Nevertheless, only initial participants profit, often at the expense of funds brought in by subsequent members.
• Groundless Hype Tactics. Trustdew utilizes fabricated claims about non-existent events, such as securing contracts with Coinbase or receiving endorsements from Elon Musk. This manipulative strategy aims to foster belief in money returns and encourages individuals to top up their accounts again.

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Trustdew 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 course of the scam, its masters may contact you with particular documents. Alternatively, they may suggest you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your crypto assets. As we previously figured out, these scammers have no plan of giving back your funds. So, what can these emails and browser add-ons represent? You guessed it right – this is another component of the deceptive plan designed to throw you into deliberately running malicious software onto your computer.

Both add-ons and attachments attached to emails can act as a shell for diverse malicious software. In this scenario, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among all types of threats. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always above zero. As noted, their morality is of negligible importance, and their reputation is already seriously marred. They have nothing to give up and strive to boost revenues.

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