Investigating Verswap: Legit or Scam? The Truth Revealed

Recently, Verswap.com website surfaced, promoting itself as a place to keep cryptocurrency and other assets securely. I managed to gather reliable supporting information that unmistakably indicates it is, in fact, a scam site.

Regardless of the promises of the most user-friendly, dependable, and client-friendly service, Verswap.com does not offer any of them. In fact, all this is just a gilded wrap around a blatant scam, which takes your money and data and never gives them back. Any stories about gifts, sponsorship from celebrities etc are non-existent as well.

Verswap Scam Overview

Originally, Verswap poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with remarkably low commission fees. Another notable selling point for this platform 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 real, frauds employ AI-generated videos with those celebs promote the fraud as if it was 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 blatant wrap around an obvious scam.

Verswap Scam

To begin with, Verswap copies the layout of numerous similar pages. There are quite a few examples, like Twonpix, Zedxbit or Afovert. They are completely identical in terms of visual elements, with small discrepancies in the site header. Other specific elements, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are identical. Presumably, all these scam sites are led by the same team of scoundrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Verswap Scam Works?

Verswap is a part of a large cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Swindlers who stand behind it use several website designs, which still share the identical 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 legitimacy of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To begin the scam, criminals set up and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They generally focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign commences. Using bots and paid ads (when feasible), fraud actors intensify the visibility of their deceptive activities to possible victims. And as I said, fraudsters do not disdain using generative AI for creating videos with the mentioned celebs that promote their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, frauds claim the bonus for every user who enrolls the service immediately.

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

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After clicking the promos, users end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with Verswap”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Verswap, “Start earning with Verswap – they look rather authoritative. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, fraudsters say that unlocking the pledged bonus requires registration. And since nothing concerning happens at this point, uninformed users happily move on – especially since the reward appears to be right behind the corner.

At this point, it is possible to get away from the scam without any losses. Before you register using your personal information, crooks 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 mentioned, deceivers bait folks for registration with bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – username, email, cryptocurrency wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Exclusively by gathering this info and selling it further into the Darknet, crooks can earn quite a penny. Still, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, the promised bonus is not available to use right away. To make it at least usable for crypto purchases, you need to top up the account with the sum of a bonus. At this point, the final stage of the scam kicks in.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Obviously, any cryptocurrency purchases require having capital on your account. With Verswap, users are also forced 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 website hoping to use all the transferred money and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the first obvious problems start to surface. When keeping an eye on the actual crypto wallet vs what the site says, you can spot that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to retrieve 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 fraudsters are naught on intentions to give your money back. But to make the fraud look more realistic, they’ve developed a whole bunch of reasons to decline the withdrawal request. Usually, they repeat what KYC regulations say, but for the Verswap.com they are here exclusively to make the withdrawal impossible.

By asking for your personal information, 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 should go through before getting your funds back. And every check will reveal more and more information, 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 Verswap.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Verswap 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 timeline of the scam, rascals may reach out to you with particular documents. Alternatively, they may offer you to set up “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to streamline access to your cryptocurrency funds. As we previously determined, these rascals have no intention of restoring your funds. So, what can these emails and browser add-ons represent? Correct – this is another element of the scam designed to throw you into deliberately installing malicious programs onto your system.

Both plugins and attachments attached to emails can act as a carrier for various malware. In this case, 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 existent. As previously mentioned, their morality is of little concern, and their dignity is already severely tarnished. They have nothing to lose and strive to maximize revenues.

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