Recently, Vestatrades.com website popped up, promoting itself as a platform to store cryptocurrency and other assets securely. I managed to gather credible evidence that unmistakably reveals it is, actually, a fraudulent platform.
Contrary to the statements of Vestatrades.com, they won’t ever return your capital. Regardless of the figures displayed in the “member area”, there is no way to take out even a single coin. All promises regarding crypto rewards are baseless as well.
Vestatrades Scam Overview
The key offering that Vestatrades aims to provide is a safe and user-friendly cryptocurrency wallet service. The website promises crypto exchange facilities, tools for controlling wallets, transfers, dashboards, and similar stuff. In fact, they try to emulate the functionality of a crypto marketplace, akin to Binance or Coinbase. However, it actually solely serves as a cover needed to lull the vigilance.
To begin with, Vestatrades reproduces the layout of multiple similar online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Wuteslax, Zaxbit or Whitnex. They are completely undistinguishable in terms of visual elements, with minor discrepancies in the site header. Other specific elements, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are matching. Most likely, all these deceptive sites are led by the same group of fraudsters.
Cryptocurrency Scam Summary
Website | Vestatrades.com |
Hosting | AS13335 Cloudflare, Inc. United States, San Francisco |
IP Address | 188.114.97.3 |
Threat Type | Scam/Fraud |
Scam Type | Fraudulent offers of cryptocurrency services |
How the Vestatrades Scam Works?
Vestatrades is yet another online platform within a wide-ranging network of linked crypto deceptive platforms. The operators utilize various brand titles and sites, like Vestatrades.com, to trap victims. Nevertheless, these fraudulent websites have in common identical website designs, terms of service, and About Us content. This reveals their beginnings as components of the identical scam network, which endorses the similar type of scam under various appearances. The fraudsters merely replicate the identical deceptive site under diverse names to fool users into believing they are joining a new platform. However, in actuality, it’s the same group of swindlers orchestrating the fraudulent commitments and attempts to grab deposited money. The managers cleverly make use of psychological tactics and captivating propositions to carry out their deceitful plans.
Step 1: Spreading
To initiate the fraud, criminals create and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They generally focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign begins. Employing bots and paid advertisements (when possible), fraud actors boost the exposure of their fraudulent activities to potential victims. This approach permits them to cast a wide net and connect with their focused spectators. The latter usually comprises of cryptocurrency fans looking for prospects to generate profits.
Users get a stimulus to sign up, attracted by the promise of getting crypto benefits valued at thousands of dollars, all without cost. To augment the appeal of the offer, fake suggestions of sponsorship by a celebrity are added. As you may guess, these claims are entirely baseless.
Step 2: Gaining Traffic
Users who express interest go to Vestatrades.com via links included in ads or robotic posts. The site utilizes captivating visuals, design aspects that appear legitimate, and claims of having a legitimate license, all designed to project an initial image of reliability.
Step 3: Data Gathering
To redeem their benefits, users need to proactively sign up on Vestatrades and get guidance to submit sensitive and personal information throughout the sign-up procedure. This includes linking their cryptocurrency wallets, providing email addresses, supplying phone numbers, sending in identification documents, and the like.
Step 4: Requesting funds
Once registered, users notice significant amounts of cryptocurrency, valued at hundreds of dollars, within their Vestatrades wallets. However, as it usually happens with such rewards, you cannot withdraw them prior to topping up your account. Usually, a funds transfer of $100 is asked to withdraw the sign-up bonus. This stipulation serves as the snare that eventually culminates to the money loss.
Step 5: Disappear
The instant the payment is made, the fraudsters terminate all communication. They go ahead to restrict users, remove accounts, and vanish with both the transferred funds and essential individual information. The phony prizes persist perpetually uncredited, as they lack genuine existence. They act solely as a fraudulent ploy. This approach forms the foundation for the scammers’ capability to mislead victims and misappropriate hard-earned funds through their deceptive internet-based crypto scam.
Signs of Scam
I gathered several facts that point at the scammy nature of the Vestatrades.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.
- Absent company details. Vestatrades 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 Vestatrades 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 Vestatrades, 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 Vestatrades is a definite scam.
What Should I do as a Victim?
If you had to deal with Vestatrades 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 duration of the scam, its masters may get in touch with you with specific documents. Alternatively, they may propose you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your cryptocurrency savings. As we previously determined, these rascals have no plan of restoring your capital. So, what can these email messages and browser plugins represent? Correct – that is another element of the scam designed to entice you into willingly running harmful software onto your computer.
Both plugins and attachments added to email messages can act as a shell for various malicious code. In this scenario, I foresee the presence of spyware and stealers among other types of threats. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the probability is always existent. As noted, their ethics is of no concern, and their reputation is already seriously marred. They have nothing to lose and aim to boost profits.
Remove spyware with Gridinsoft Anti-Malware
We have also been using this software on our systems ever since, and it has always been successful in detecting viruses. It has blocked the most common malicious programs as shown from our tests with the software, and we assure you that it can remove spyware as well as other malware hiding on your computer.
To use Gridinsoft for remove malicious threats, follow the steps below:
1. Begin by downloading Gridinsoft Anti-Malware, accessible via the blue button below or directly from the official website gridinsoft.com.
2.Once the Gridinsoft setup file (setup-gridinsoft-fix.exe) is downloaded, execute it by clicking on the file.
3.Follow the installation setup wizard's instructions diligently.
4. Access the "Scan Tab" on the application's start screen and launch a comprehensive "Full Scan" to examine your entire computer. This inclusive scan encompasses the memory, startup items, the registry, services, drivers, and all files, ensuring that it detects malware hidden in all possible locations.
Be patient, as the scan duration depends on the number of files and your computer's hardware capabilities. Use this time to relax or attend to other tasks.
5. Upon completion, Anti-Malware will present a detailed report containing all the detected malicious items and threats on your PC.
6. Select all the identified items from the report and confidently click the "Clean Now" button. This action will safely remove the malicious files from your computer, transferring them to the secure quarantine zone of the anti-malware program to prevent any further harmful actions.
8. If prompted, restart your computer to finalize the full system scan procedure. This step is crucial to ensure thorough removal of any remaining threats. After the restart, Gridinsoft Anti-Malware will open and display a message confirming the completion of the scan.
Remember Gridinsoft offers a 6-day free trial. This means you can take advantage of the trial period at no cost to experience the full benefits of the software and prevent any future malware infections on your system. Embrace this opportunity to fortify your computer's security without any financial commitment.
Trojan Killer for “spyware” removal on locked PC
In situations where it becomes impossible to download antivirus applications directly onto the infected computer due to malware blocking access to websites, an alternative solution is to utilize the Trojan Killer application.
There is a really little number of security tools that are able to be set up on the USB drives, and antiviruses that can do so in most cases require to obtain quite an expensive license. For this instance, I can recommend you to use another solution of GridinSoft - Trojan Killer Portable. It has a 14-days cost-free trial mode that offers the entire features of the paid version. This term will definitely be 100% enough to wipe malware out.
Trojan Killer is a valuable tool in your cybersecurity arsenal, helping you to effectively remove malware from infected computers. Now, we will walk you through the process of using Trojan Killer from a USB flash drive to scan and remove malware on an infected PC. Remember, always obtain permission to scan and remove malware from a computer that you do not own.
Step 1: Download & Install Trojan Killer on a Clean Computer:
1. Go to the official GridinSoft website (gridinsoft.com) and download Trojan Killer to a computer that is not infected.
2. Insert a USB flash drive into this computer.
3. Install Trojan Killer to the "removable drive" following the on-screen instructions.
4. Once the installation is complete, launch Trojan Killer.
Step 2: Update Signature Databases:
5. After launching Trojan Killer, ensure that your computer is connected to the Internet.
6. Click "Update" icon to download the latest signature databases, which will ensure the tool can detect the most recent threats.
Step 3: Scan the Infected PC:
7. Safely eject the USB flash drive from the clean computer.
8. Boot the infected computer to the Safe Mode.
9. Insert the USB flash drive.
10. Run tk.exe
11. Once the program is open, click on "Full Scan" to begin the malware scanning process.
Step 4: Remove Found Threats:
12. After the scan is complete, Trojan Killer will display a list of detected threats.
13. Click on "Cure PC!" to remove the identified malware from the infected PC.
14. Follow any additional on-screen prompts to complete the removal process.
Step 5: Restart Your Computer:
15. Once the threats are removed, click on "Restart PC" to reboot your computer.
16. Remove the USB flash drive from the infected computer.
Congratulations on effectively removing spyware and the concealed threats from your computer! You can now have peace of mind, knowing that they won't resurface again. Thanks to Gridinsoft's capabilities and commitment to cybersecurity, your system is now protected.
Frequently asked questions
The vast majority of information posted on the Vestatrades site is false. It is either fabricated, or a manipulation that misses the context of mentioned events. However, things like quotes or other interactive elements related to current prices may be trustworthy. But I would rather avoid using them as a primary source of information.
No, there is no legitimate information on the Vestatrades site. The operators of this site use fabricated details and deceptive tactics to create an appearance of credibility, such as appealing visuals and claims of being a licensed company. However, these claims are false, and the site is part of a larger network of interconnected crypto scam sites designed to defraud victims. The scammers manipulate users into providing sensitive personal information and making deposits, ultimately leading to the loss of funds.
Unfortunately, recovering funds lost to a scam like Vestatrades can be extremely challenging, if not impossible. Scammers often operate from obscure locations and use various tactics to cover their tracks, making it difficult to trace or retrieve the stolen funds. In many cases, these scams are designed to exploit victims and disappear once they have obtained the money.
Spotting crypto trading scams requires vigilance and a critical eye. Here are some tips to help you identify potential crypto trading scams in the future:
- Verify Regulation and Licensing. Before proceeding, ensure that the platform or service is regulated and possesses the necessary licenses from relevant authorities. Scammers often operate without proper authorization.
- Resist Urgency. Be cautious of tactics that create a false sense of urgency to pressure you into quick decisions. Legitimate investments provide ample time for research and consideration.
- Consult Reviews and Feedback. Seek independent reviews and feedback from other traders. While positive reviews can be fabricated, negative reviews often reveal valuable insights.
- Question Unrealistic Promises. Approach offers with unrealistically high returns or guaranteed profits skeptically. If an investment opportunity seems too good to be true, it probably is.
- Scrutinize Celebrity Endorsements. Exercise skepticism when faced with endorsements from celebrities or public figures. Scammers frequently create fake endorsements to enhance credibility.
If you have become a victim of a Vestatrades or similar crypto trading scam, it’s important to take immediate action to minimize further damage and increase the chances of recovering your losses. Here’s what you should do:
- Contact Financial Institutions. If you conducted any payments or deposits through your credit card or bank account, promptly notify your financial institution. They might offer assistance in contesting transactions or initiating chargebacks.
- Immediately Halt Communication. Once you recognize that you have fallen victim to a scam, cease all communication with the scammers. Refrain from responding to their emails, messages, or phone calls.
- Consult Legal Counsel. Seek counsel from a legal expert specialized in fraud or financial matters. They can provide guidance on potential legal avenues for recovering your funds.
- Inform the Authorities. Lodge an official report with your local law enforcement agency and relevant regulatory bodies within your country. Present them with the amassed evidence. This step instigates investigations and enhances awareness about the scam.
- Notify Cryptocurrency Exchanges. Should you have employed a cryptocurrency exchange for transactions linked to the scam, inform the exchange about the fraudulent activity. In certain cases, they could extend their assistance.
- Seek Legal Advice. Consult with a legal professional who specializes in fraud or financial matters. They can provide advice on potential legal actions you can take to recover your funds.
- Thoroughly Document the Events. Gather and safeguard all pertinent information, including emails, screenshots, transaction records, and any correspondence with the scammers. This documentation holds utmost importance for reporting the scam and seeking assistance.
The truth about Vestatrades
Name: Vestatrades
Description: Cryptocurrency scams continue to increase as digital assets achieve mainstream adoption. A recent example of such a scam involves Vestatrades, a fraudulent crypto exchange that entices victims with promises of free crypto giveaways. This detailed article will extensively examine the operations of the Vestatrades scam, techniques for recognizing it, and, most crucially, ways to evade becoming a victim.
Operating System: All
Application Category: Crypto Scams