The Truth About Votbay: Legit or Scam? Our Review

Recently, Votbay.com website surfaced, promoting itself as a platform where you can securely store cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather credible evidence that clearly confirms it is, actually, a deceptive platform.

Regardless of the promises of the most easy, dependable, and customer-centric service, Votbay.com does not offer any of them. All this is just a gilded wrap around a blatant scam, which takes your money and never returns them. Any tales about bonuses, endorsement from celebrities etc are absent as well.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

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Votbay Scam Overview

Originally, Votbay poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet platform with exceptionally low commission fees. Another notable marketing point for this service is partnerships with celebrities that have relation to the crypto world. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Vitalii Buterin, Warren Buffet – the site says about being supported by them. To make these claims look more realistic, con actors use deepfake videos with those celebs advertise the fraud as the best thing in the world. For known reasons, Elon Musk is the most common choise for that. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a glaring wrap around an obvious scam.

Votbay Scam

First and foremost, Votbay copies the appearance of numerous similar pages. There are quite a few examples, like Warmbit, Wdcagigpt or Weotax. They are completely identical in terms of visual elements, with slight discrepancies in the website header. Other particulars, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are unchanged. Most likely, all these scam sites are managed by a single group of frauds.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Votbay Scam Works?

Votbay is a part of a large cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating vividly in 2023. Scammers who stand behind it use numerous website designs, which still share the identical overall layout. Another mutual 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 popular social media platforms. They primarily focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign begins. Employing bots and paid promotions (when achievable), fraud actors boost the visibility of their fraudulent activities to possible victims. And as I said, scammers do not disdain using deepfake for creating clips with the mentioned celebs that promote 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 Votbay in TikTok. Most of these videos are AI-generated deepfakes

Users get an encouragement to sign up, enticed by the assurance of obtaining cryptocurrency prizes valued at thousands of dollars, all free of charge. To increase the attractiveness of the offer, false claims of cooperation with a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these claims are entirely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After following the ads, victims end up on a page filled with enticing offers. “Crypto starts with Votbay”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Votbay, “Start earning with Votbay – they look rather authoritative. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, scammers say that retrieving the promoted bonus requires registration. And as nothing suspicious happens at this point, unaware users happily proceed – especially since 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 data, swindrels will not earn even a nickel 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 for registration with bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – email, username, crypto wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Solely by gathering this data and selling it further into the Darknet, crooks can earn quite a penny. Still, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, you cannot use the alleged 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 starts the final stage of the scam.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Obviously, any crypto operations require you to have funds on your account. In the case of Votbay, users are also compelled to top up to use the bonuses. And these top ups 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 trading on this site hoping to use all the transferred capital and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the victim notices the problems. When keeping an eye on the actual crypto wallet vs what the site says, you can observe that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to withdraw the funds 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 have zero intentions to return your money. But to make it look more realistic, they’ve made up 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 only to make the withdrawal impossible.

By asking for your personal data, deceivers just stall hoping for you to accept the loss and stop contacting them. If you don’t – well, there are a dozen other checks you would desperately need to undergo before getting your grand 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 Votbay.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

• Unsubstantiated Credibility. Votbay employs fraudulent celebrity endorsements, often featuring names like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mr. Beast, and Mark Zuckerberg. These false claims extend to fictitious partnerships with reputable entities like Coinbase, Binance, or MetaMask, despite the absence of genuine connections.
• Implausible Earnings Claims. Promising remarkable returns of 50-100-200%, Votbay exploits the longing for quick profits. However, such gains are unrealistic within the volatile cryptocurrency landscape, unequivocally identifying Votbay as a scam.
• Dubious Corporate Information. Votbay arouses suspicion by providing inadequate documentation about ownership, location, and registration. Furthermore, the lack of legitimate contact information and the recent registration of domain and social media profiles deepen skepticism.
• Exclusive Cryptocurrency Payments. Votbay.com solely accepts payments in cryptocurrencies, refraining from traditional bank transfers and other payment methods. This approach not only shrouds the company’s identity but also prevents the possibility of requesting refunds.
• Potential Pyramid Scheme. The scam relies on a Ponzi-like referral structure disseminated through social media. Nevertheless, only initial participants profit, often at the expense of funds brought in by subsequent members.
• Groundless Hype Tactics. Votbay utilizes fabricated claims about non-existent events, such as securing contracts with Coinbase or receiving endorsements from Elon Musk. This manipulative strategy aims to foster belief in money returns and encourages individuals to top up their accounts again.

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Votbay 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, scoundrels may reach out to you with specific documents. Alternatively, they may offer you to install “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to streamline access to your cryptocurrency funds. As we already figured out, these scoundrels have no plan of giving back your money. So, what do these email messages and browser plugins represent? You guessed it right – that is another element of the deceptive plan designed to entice you into deliberately installing harmful software onto your computer.

Both extensions and attachments added to email messages can serve as a shell for different malicious software. In this case, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among other types of malicious programs. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the probability is always existent. As stated, their ethics is of little concern, and their dignity is already severely tarnished. They have no principles to lose and strive to maximize profits.

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