Recently, Velon.pro service appeared, promoting itself as a place where you can safely store cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather credible supporting information that unmistakably reveals it is, actually, a deceptive platform.
Despite the promises of the most user-friendly, trustworthy, and client-friendly service, Velon.pro does not follow any of them. In fact, all this is just a gilded wrap around a clear scam, which steals your money and data and never gives them back. Any tales about bonuses, endorsement from celebrities etc are absent as well.
Velon Scam Overview
Originally, Velon poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with remarkably low commission fees. Another highlighted selling point for this service is backing from celebrities that are known as crypto activists. 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 more realistic, rascals employ AI-generated videos where those celebrities advertise the scam as the best thing in the world. Obviously, Elon Musk is the most common choise for that. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a vivid wrap around a transparent scam.
Velon Scam
To begin with, Velon repeats the layout of numerous equivalent pages. There are quite a few examples, like Xelup, Kelunax or Lexidex. They are completely indistinguishable in terms of visual elements, with slight discrepancies in the webpage header. Other specific elements, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are identical. Most likely, all these fraudulent websites are led by the same group of frauds.
Cryptocurrency Scam Summary
| Website | Velon.pro |
| Hosting | AS13335 Cloudflare, Inc. United States, San Francisco |
| IP Address | 104.21.80.1 |
| Threat Type | Scam/Fraud |
| Scam Type | Fraudulent offers of cryptocurrency services |
How the Velon Scam Works?
Velon is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Rascals who stand behind it use various website designs, which still share the similar 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 create and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They generally focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign begins. Using bots and paid ads (when feasible), scam actors intensify the exposure of their scam activities to potential victims. And as I said, crooks do not disdain using deepfake for creating videos with the mentioned celebrities that advertise their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, deceivers claim the bonus for every user who joins the service immediately.
Promotions of cryptoscams like Velon in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes
Users obtain a stimulus to sign up, enticed by the assurance of obtaining crypto prizes valued at thousands of dollars, all for free. To increase the appeal of the offer, fake claims of sponsorship by a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these claims are entirely baseless.
Step 2: Gaining Traffic
After following the promos, victims end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with Velon”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Velon, “Start earning with Velon – they look rather authoritative. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, fraudsters say that getting the pledged bonus requires registration. And since nothing suspicious happens at this point, unexperienced 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 steer away from the scam without any losses. Before you sign up using your personal information, crooks will not 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 mentioned, scammers bait folks for registration with bonuses. And all the personal info needed for it – username, email, crypto wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Solely by gathering this information and selling it further into the Darknet, crooks can earn quite a penny. Still, their plans go much further.
As it turns out, the claimed bonus is not available for withdrawal right away. To make at least cryptocurrency purchases on the platform with it, you need to top up the account with the sum of a bonus. And this is what initiates the final stage of the scam.
Step 4: Requesting funds
It is obvious that any cryptocurrency operations require you to have funds on your account. With Velon, users are also coerced to top up to use 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 promised gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start engaging on this website hoping to use all the transferred money and withdraw them.
This is where the first obvious issues start to surface. When keeping an eye on the real cryptocurrency wallet vs what the website says, you can spot 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
There’s no need to explain that swindlers have no intentions to give your money back. But to make it look more realistic, they’ve developed a whole pack of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Usually, they repeat what KYC regulations say, but in this case they are here exclusively to make the wireout impossible.
By asking for your personal info, frauds just stall hoping for you to accept the loss and stop contacting them. If you don’t – well, there are multiple other checks you would desperately need to undergo before getting your grand back. And every check will uncover 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 Velon.pro. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.
- Absent company details. Velon 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 Velon 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 Velon, 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 Velon is a definite scam.
What Should I do as a Victim?
If you had to deal with Velon 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 documents. Alternatively, they may propose you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your cryptocurrency assets. As we already figured out, these rascals have no intent of returning your funds. So, what do these emails and browser plugins represent? Correct – this is another side of the scam designed to entice you into deliberately installing malicious applications onto your device.
Both add-ons and files included to emails can function as a shell for diverse malicious code. In this case, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among other forms of malware. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the chance is always existent. As noted, their morality is of no concern, and their reputation is already neck deep in mud. They have nothing to lose and strive to boost revenues.
