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

Recently, Valhadex.com service popped up, promoting itself as a platform where you can securely keep cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather reliable supporting information that unmistakably indicates it is, in truth, a deceptive platform.

Despite the promises of the most easy, dependable, and customer-centric service, Valhadex.com does not offer any of them. In fact, all this is just a shiny wrap around a blatant scam, which steals your money and data and never returns them. Any stories about gifts, endorsement from celebrities etc are absent as well.

Valhadex Scam Overview

Originally, Valhadex poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with exceptionally low commission fees. Another notable selling point for this site is partnerships with celebrities that are known in the crypto world. Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Vitalii Buterin, Jeff Bezos – the site says about being supported by them. To make these claims look more realistic, rascals employ AI-generated videos with those celebs advertise the fake crypto service as the best thing in the world. Obviously, Elon Musk is the most common among them. But, as I said in the introduction, all this is just a glaring wrap around an obvious scam.

Valhadex Scam

To begin with, Valhadex repeats the design of numerous similar pages. There are quite a few examples, like Ranndex, Bivexy or Lenemix. They are entirely identical in terms of graphic elements, with slight discrepancies in the webpage header. Other specific elements, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are identical. Probably, all these scam sites are led by the same group of swindrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Valhadex Scam Works?

Valhadex is a part of a significant cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Swindlers who stand behind it use various website designs, which still share the same 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 authenticity of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To start the deceptive scheme, criminals create and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They generally focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign begins. Utilizing bots and paid promotions (when feasible), fraud actors increase the presence of their scam activities to possible victims. And as I said, crooks 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, deceivers claim the bonus for every user who registers the service immediately.

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

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After following the ads, targets end up on a page filled with attractive offers. “Crypto starts with Valhadex”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Valhadex, “Start earning with Valhadex – they look rather credible. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, fraudsters say that claiming the promised bonus requires registration. And as nothing suspicious happens at this point, unexperienced users happily move on – especially since 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 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 mentioned, deceivers bait folks into registration to get bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – username, email, cryptocurrency wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Exclusively by gathering this info and selling it further into the Darknet, fraudsters can earn quite a penny. Still, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, the alleged bonus is not available to use right away. To make it at least usable for cryptocurrency 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

Eventually, any cryptocurrency purchases require you to have money on your account. In the case of Valhadex, users are also forced to top up to claim the bonuses. And this is what creates most of the money flow to this scam site. By topping up the account, users hope to get the pledged gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start participating on this site hoping to use all the transferred money and withdraw them.

This is where the victim notices the issues. When keeping an eye on the actual crypto wallet vs what the site says, you can notice that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to withdraw the money 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. Though to make it look more legitimate, they’ve made up a whole pack 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 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 numerous other checks you would desperately need to undergo before getting your money back. And each of these checks will share more and more info of yours, which – you guessed it right – will be then traded 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 Valhadex.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Valhadex 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 course of the scam, rascals may contact you with specific documents. Alternatively, they may suggest you to install “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your crypto funds. As we previously figured out, these scoundrels have no intention of returning your money. So, what can these email messages and browser extensions represent? You guessed – that is another side of the scam designed to entice you into deliberately running malicious applications onto your computer.

Both plugins and files included to email messages can serve as a carrier for diverse malware. In this scenario, I foresee the presence of spyware and stealers among all kinds of malicious programs. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always existent. As noted, their ethics is of no concern, and their dignity is already deeply compromised. They have no principles to lose and intend to boost profits.

Frequently asked questions