Vongbit Review: Legit or Scam? Read This First

Recently, Vongbit.com service appeared, promoting itself as a platform to store cryptocurrency and other assets safely. I managed to gather credible evidence that unmistakably confirms it is, actually, a deceptive service.

Regardless of the promises of the most convenient, dependable, and customer-centric service, Vongbit.com does not offer any of them. All this is just a shiny wrap around a dirty scam, which takes your funds and never gives them back. Any tales about gifts, backing from celebrities etc are nowhere to be found as well.

Vongbit Scam Overview

Originally, Vongbit poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet platform with remarkably low commission fees. Another bright marketing point for this platform 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 more realistic, con actors employ AI-generated videos with those celebs advertise the scam as the best thing in the world. For known reasons, Elon Musk is the most common among them. But, as I said in the introduction, all this is just a vivid wrap around a transparent scam.

Vongbit Scam

To begin with, Vongbit copies the appearance of numerous equivalent pages. There are quite a few examples, like Lapsbit, Fernad or Domager. They are completely 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 fraudulent sites are managed by the same gang of fraudsters.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Vongbit Scam Works?

Vongbit is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Swindlers who stand behind it use several 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 scam, criminals establish and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They mainly aim at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign commences. Employing bots and paid advertisements (when feasible), scam actors intensify the visibility of their scam activities to potential victims. And as I said, crooks do not disdain using generative AI for creating videos with the aforementioned celebs that advertise 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 Vongbit in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users receive an incentive to sign up, enticed by the promise of obtaining crypto rewards valued at hundreds of dollars, all without cost. To enhance the attractiveness of the offer, false suggestions of sponsorship by a celebrity are added. As you may guess, these assertions are entirely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon following the promotions, victims end up on a page filled with attractive offers. “Crypto starts with Vongbit”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Vongbit, “Start earning with Vongbit – they look rather authoritative. To heat up the interest and make the users proceed to step 3, crooks say that retrieving the pledged bonus requires registration. And as nothing concerning happens at this point, uninformed users happily keep on – especially as the bonus appears to be right behind the corner.

This is the last stage when it is possible to skip the scam without any losses. Before you sign up using your personal information, frauds 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 into registration to get bonuses. And all the personal info needed for it – username, email, 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, you cannot use the claimed bonus right away. To make it at least usable for crypto purchases, 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 purchases require having money on your account. With Vongbit, users are also compelled to top up to get the bonuses. And this is what creates most of the cash 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 trading on this site hoping to use all the transferred capital and withdraw them.

This is where the victim notices the problems. When keeping an eye on the real cryptocurrency wallet vs what the site 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

There’s no need to explain that swindlers have zero intentions to send you money. Though to make the fraud look more legitimate, they’ve made up a whole bunch of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Most of them repeat what KYC requirements say, but in this case they are here only to make the withdrawal impossible.

By asking for your personal data, 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 would desperately need to undergo before getting your funds back. And every check 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 Vongbit.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Vongbit 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 duration of the scam, scoundrels may get in touch with you with specific documents. Alternatively, they may propose you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to simplify access to your crypto assets. As we previously determined, these scammers have no intent of restoring your money. So, what can these email messages and browser extensions represent? You guessed it right – that is another side of the fraudulent scheme designed to entice you into deliberately running malicious applications onto your device.

Both extensions and files added to emails can function as a carrier for diverse malicious code. In this case, I foresee the presence of spyware and stealers among other forms of threats. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always significant. As stated, their conscience is of negligible importance, and their reputation is already severely tarnished. They have nothing to give up and strive to maximize revenues.

Frequently asked questions