We Investigated Upbeastok: Legit or Scam? The Facts

Recently, Upbeastok.com site appeared, promoting itself as a platform to store cryptocurrency and other assets safely. I managed to gather reliable proof that unmistakably reveals it is, actually, a fraudulent site.

Despite the promises of the most user-friendly, dependable, and client-friendly service, Upbeastok.com does not fulfill any of them. All this is just a golden wrap around a dirty scam, which steals your money and never gives them back. Any tales about bonuses, sponsorship from celebrities etc are nowhere to be found as well.

Upbeastok Scam Overview

Originally, Upbeastok poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet service with remarkably low commission fees. Another notable marketing point for this service is partnerships with celebrities that are known in the crypto world. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Vitalii Buterin, Warren Buffet – the site claims having significant support from them. To make these claims look more realistic, frauds use deepfake videos with those celebs advertise the scam as if it was the best thing in the world. For known reasons, Elon Musk is the most common among them. But, as I said in the introduction, all this is just a glaring wrap around a transparent scam.

Upbeastok Scam

To begin with, Upbeastok repeats the appearance of many equivalent pages. There are quite a few examples, like Ethdtt, Cryptominingtrade or Bitaufy. They are entirely identical in terms of graphic elements, with minor discrepancies in the website header. Other specific elements, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Presumably, all these fraudulent online platforms are managed by the same team of fraudsters.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Upbeastok Scam Works?

Upbeastok is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Swindlers who stand behind it use numerous 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 authenticity of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To start the fraud, criminals set up and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They primarily aim at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign commences. Utilizing bots and paid advertisements (when achievable), scam actors boost the exposure of their deceptive activities to potential victims. And as I said, crooks do not disdain using generative AI for creating clips with the mentioned celebrities that promote their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, swindlers claim the bonus for every user who joins the service immediately.

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

Users obtain an incentive to sign up, attracted by the promise of receiving cryptocurrency benefits valued at hundreds of dollars, all without cost. To enhance the appeal of the offer, fake suggestions of sponsorship by a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these assertions are entirely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon clicking the promotions, targets end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with Upbeastok”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Upbeastok, “Start earning with Upbeastok – they look rather authoritative. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, crooks say that claiming the promised bonus requires registration. And since nothing concerning happens at this point, uninformed users happily keep on – 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 register 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 the starting poing of the main fraud action. As I just mentioned, deceivers bait folks for registration with bonuses. And all the personal data needed for it – username, email, cryptocurrency wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Exclusively by gathering this information and selling it further into the Darknet, crooks 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 it at least usable for crypto purchases, you need to 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

It is obvious that any crypto purchases require having funds on your account. With Upbeastok, users are also coerced to top up to get 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 promised gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start participating on this site hoping to use all the transferred capital and withdraw them.

This is where the first obvious issues start to surface. When keeping an eye on the actual 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 capital from your account, the scam is finally uncovered to the user.

Step 5: Escaping from Funds Withdrawal

Needless to say that fraudsters have no intentions to return your money. Though to make the fraud look more realistic, they’ve elaborated a whole pack of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Usually, they repeat what Know Your Client requirements say, but for the Upbeastok.com they are here exclusively to make the withdrawal 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 a dozen other checks you would desperately need to undergo before getting your money back. And every check will reveal more and more info of yours, 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 Upbeastok.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Upbeastok 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 to Authorities. Your initial action should involve reporting the scam to local authorities responsible for addressing financial fraud. Additionally, reach out to wallet providers and engage with the technical support teams of social networks. This collective effort raises the bar for the scammers’ operations.
• Inform Your Inner Circle. Extend your impact by sharing information about the scam with your close friends. Similar to notifying authorities, this dissemination of details curbs the scammers’ potential to deceive.
• Document the Trail. Assemble a comprehensive record by capturing screenshots and archiving all relevant website-related data. This encompasses the website URL, screenshots of the main page, login interface, end-user license agreement (EULA), account top-up menu, and wallet addresses. These materials offer invaluable leads for authorities in their pursuit of the scammers.
• Explore Refund Possibilities. While cryptocurrency payments may not typically align with traditional bank refund policies, it’s worthwhile to explore potential refund avenues under specific circumstances. Maintain a positive outlook until you secure confirmation of the loss.
• Transform Loss into Insight. Shift your focus from the financial loss to gaining wisdom. Consider your loss as an investment in comprehending the tactics employed by crypto scam sites. Familiarize yourself with their distinctive traits, the methods they employ to entice individuals, and the extravagant pledges they make. This knowledge equips you to recognize and avoid future traps, minimizing the risk of enduring further 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 fraud, rascals may contact you with specific files. Alternatively, they may offer you to set up “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your crypto savings. As we already figured out, these scoundrels have no intent of giving back your capital. So, what do these messages and browser extensions represent? Correct – that is another component of the fraudulent scheme designed to throw you into deliberately installing harmful software onto your device.

Both plugins and attachments included to emails can function as a shell for diverse malware. In this case, I anticipate the presence of spyware and stealers among other types of malware. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the probability is always existent. As noted, their conscience is of no concern, and their reputation is already seriously marred. They have no scruples to lose and strive to boost revenues.

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