We Investigated Waretoken: Legit or Scam? The Facts

Recently, Waretoken.com service surfaced, promoting itself as a platform where you can safely keep cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather credible supporting information that clearly reveals it is, in fact, a scam service.

Regardless of the promises of the most user-friendly, reliable, and customer-centric service, Waretoken.com does not follow any of them. All this is just a gilded wrap around a blatant scam, which steals your money and never returns them. Any tales about gifts, endorsement from celebrities etc are non-existent as well.

Waretoken Scam Overview

Originally, Waretoken poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet platform with outstandingly low commission fees. Another bright marketing point for this platform is partnerships with 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, frauds employ deepfake videos with those celebs advertise the fraud as if it was the best thing in the world. For obvious reasons, Elon Musk is the most common choise for that. But, as I said in the introduction, all this is just a blatant wrap around an obvious scam.

Waretoken Scam

To begin with, Waretoken copies the layout of many equivalent online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Slsbit, Sellebit or Youtybit. They are totally identical in terms of visual elements, with slight discrepancies in the site header. Other specific elements, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are matching. Most likely, all these deceptive online platforms are managed by a single team of swindrels.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Waretoken Scam Works?

Waretoken is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Scammers who stand behind it use several 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 complex 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 fraud, criminals create and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They primarily target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign starts. Employing bots and paid promotions (when achievable), scam actors intensify the exposure of their deceptive 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, swindlers claim the bonus for every user who joins the service immediately.

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

Users get an incentive to register, enticed by the commitment of obtaining cryptocurrency benefits valued at thousands of dollars, all free of charge. To enhance the appeal of the offer, fake suggestions of sponsorship by a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these assertions are completely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

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

At this point, it is possible to steer away from the scam without any losses. Before you register using your personal data, rascals 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 info needed for it – username, email, crypto wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Solely by gathering this information and selling it further into the Darknet, crooks can earn quite a penny. Nonetheless, 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 cryptocurrency purchases, the user should top up the account with the equivalent sum. 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 money on your account. With Waretoken, users are also forced to top up to claim the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates the majority of the money flow to this fraudulent website. 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 issues start to surface. 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 money from your account, the scam is finally uncovered to the user.

Step 5: Escaping from Funds Withdrawal

Needless to say that fraudsters have zero intentions to return your money. Though to make the denial look more legitimate, they’ve elaborated a whole pack of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Most of them repeat what KYC guidelines say, but for the Waretoken.com they are here exclusively to make the wireout impossible.

By asking for your personal data, scammers 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 money back. And every check will share 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 Waretoken.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

• False Celebrity Sponsorship. Waretoken often resorts to fake endorsements from celebrities such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mr. Beast, and Mark Zuckerberg. This fraudulent tactic extends to claiming partnerships with reputable companies like Coinbase, Binance, or MetaMask, despite lacking any genuine affiliations.
• Cryptocurrency-Only Payments. Waretoken.com exclusively accepts payments in cryptocurrencies, rejecting traditional bank transfers and other methods. This approach not only masks the company’s identity but also eliminates the possibility of seeking refunds.
• Dubious Company Information. Waretoken raises suspicion by withholding essential ownership, location, and registration details. Furthermore, the absence of legitimate contact information and the recent establishment of domain and social media pages intensify skepticism.
• Unsubstantiated Hype. Waretoken.com employs groundless hype tactics, fabricating events like securing contracts with Coinbase or receiving endorsements from Elon Musk. These manipulative techniques aim to instill false confidence and encourage further investments.
• Potential Pyramid Scheme. The scam relies on a structure resembling a Ponzi scheme, leveraging a referral system spread through social media. However, only initial participants benefit, often at the expense of subsequent investors.
• Implausible Claims. Promising returns of 50-100-200%, Waretoken preys on the desire for quick profits. Yet, the volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market makes such gains highly unlikely, definitively labeling Waretoken as a scam.

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Waretoken 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 scam, its masters may get in touch with you with particular files. Alternatively, they may suggest you to install “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to facilitate access to your crypto funds. As we already figured out, these scoundrels have no intention of giving back your funds. So, what do these email messages and browser plugins represent? You guessed – that is another side of the deceptive plan designed to entice you into willingly installing harmful programs onto your computer.

Both extensions and files added to email messages can serve as a carrier for various malware. In this situation, I anticipate the presence of spyware and stealers among all types of threats. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the probability is always significant. As noted, their morality is of negligible importance, and their reputation is already seriously marred. They have nothing to lose and intend to maximize gains.

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