We Investigated Upjex: Legit or Scam? The Facts

Recently, Upjex.com site appeared, promoting itself as a place to keep cryptocurrency and other assets securely. I managed to gather credible evidence that unmistakably indicates it is, in fact, a fraudulent service.

Regardless of the promises of the most easy, reliable, and customer-centric service, Upjex.com does not follow any of them. All this is just a golden wrap around a blatant scam, which steals your funds and never returns them. Any stories about bonuses, backing from celebrities etc are non-existent as well.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

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Upjex Scam Overview

Originally, Upjex poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet platform with outstandingly low commission fees. Another highlighted selling point for this service 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, rascals use deepfake videos where those celebrities advertise the scam 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 vivid wrap around a transparent scam.

Upjex Scam

First and foremost, Upjex repeats the design of numerous similar pages. There are quite a few examples, like Hopicats, Lynomex or Lelonex. They are entirely undistinguishable in terms of graphic elements, with small discrepancies in the site header. Other specific elements, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Probably, all these scam sites are led by the same team of scoundrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Upjex Scam Works?

Upjex is a part of a significant cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating vividly in 2023. Rascals 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 complex 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 create and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They mainly focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign starts. Using bots and sponsored advertisements (when possible), scam actors boost the visibility of their deceptive activities to potential victims. And as I said, fraudsters do not disdain using generative AI for creating clips 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 Upjex in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users receive an incentive to sign up, attracted by the assurance of obtaining crypto prizes valued at hundreds of dollars, all without cost. To augment the appeal of the offer, fake suggestions of cooperation with a celebrity are added. As you may guess, these claims are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After following the ads, targets end up on a page filled with appealing offers. “Crypto starts with Upjex”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Upjex, “Start earning with Upjex – they look rather credible. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, fraudsters say that retrieving the promised bonus requires registration. And since nothing questionable happens at this point, unexperienced users happily move on – especially since 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 info, swindrels will not be able to earn even a penny 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 registration for bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – email, username, crypto wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Only by gathering this info and selling it further into the Darknet, crooks 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 at least cryptocurrency purchases on the platform with it, 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

Obviously, any crypto purchases require having funds on your account. With Upjex, users are also forced to top up to use the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates the majority 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, however, is where the issues start to surface. When comparing the actual cryptocurrency wallet vs what the website 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 swindlers have no intentions to send you money. But to make it look more realistic, they’ve made up a whole pack of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Most of them repeat what Know Your Client guidelines say, but for the Upjex.com they are here exclusively to make the withdrawal impossible.

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

• False Celebrity Sponsorship. Upjex often resorts to fake endorsements from celebrities such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mr. Beast, and Mark Zuckerberg. This fraudulent tactic extends to claiming partnerships with reputable companies like Coinbase, Binance, or MetaMask, despite lacking any genuine affiliations.
• Cryptocurrency-Only Payments. Upjex.com exclusively accepts payments in cryptocurrencies, rejecting traditional bank transfers and other methods. This approach not only masks the company’s identity but also eliminates the possibility of seeking refunds.
• Dubious Company Information. Upjex raises suspicion by withholding essential ownership, location, and registration details. Furthermore, the absence of legitimate contact information and the recent establishment of domain and social media pages intensify skepticism.
• Unsubstantiated Hype. Upjex.com employs groundless hype tactics, fabricating events like securing contracts with Coinbase or receiving endorsements from Elon Musk. These manipulative techniques aim to instill false confidence and encourage further investments.
• Potential Pyramid Scheme. The scam relies on a structure resembling a Ponzi scheme, leveraging a referral system spread through social media. However, only initial participants benefit, often at the expense of subsequent investors.
• Implausible Claims. Promising returns of 50-100-200%, Upjex preys on the desire for quick profits. Yet, the volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market makes such gains highly unlikely, definitively labeling Upjex as a scam.

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Upjex 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 timeline of the fraud, its actors may contact you with particular files. Alternatively, they may offer you to install “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your cryptocurrency savings. As we earlier determined, these scammers have no intent of restoring your money. So, what do these messages and browser add-ons represent? You guessed it right – this is another element of the deceptive plan designed to entice you into willingly installing destructive programs onto your computer.

Both extensions and files attached to emails can function as a carrier for diverse malicious code. In this scenario, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among all kinds of malware. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the probability is always greater than zero. As noted, their morality is of negligible importance, and their reputation is already severely tarnished. They have nothing to give up and aim to maximize gains.

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