Waured Reviewed: Legit or Total Ripoff? Read This First

Recently, Waured.com service appeared, promoting itself as a place where you can safely store cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather credible supporting information that unmistakably confirms it is, actually, a scam platform.

Despite the promises of the most easy, trustworthy, and client-friendly service, Waured.com does not offer any of them. All this is just a shiny wrap around a dirty scam, which steals your money and never returns them. Any stories about gifts, sponsorship from celebrities etc are absent as well.

Waured Scam Overview

Originally, Waured poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with outstandingly low commission fees. Another bright selling point for this site is partnerships with celebrities that have relation to the crypto world. 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 real, con actors employ deepfake videos with those celebs promote the fraud as the best thing in the world. For known 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 a transparent scam.

Waured Scam

To begin with, Waured repeats the layout of numerous similar websites. There are quite a few examples, like Jonley, Fovelex or Cryptuslab. They are totally undistinguishable in terms of graphic elements, with small discrepancies in the webpage header. Other details, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are matching. Presumably, all these fraudulent sites are managed by a single team of scammers.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Waured Scam Works?

Waured is a part of a large cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Swindlers who stand behind it use numerous website designs, which still share the similar overall layout. Another shared 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 validity of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To start the scam, criminals establish and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They generally focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the marketing campaign begins. Employing bots and sponsored promotions (when achievable), scam actors boost the presence of their deceptive activities to possible victims. And as I said, fraudsters do not disdain using deepfake for creating clips with the mentioned celebrities that promote their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, deceivers claim the bonus for every user who enrolls the service immediately.

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

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon following the ads, victims end up on a page filled with attractive offers. “Crypto starts with Waured”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Waured, “Start earning with Waured – they look rather credible. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, fraudsters say that obtaining the promised bonus requires registration. And as nothing suspicious happens at this point, unexperienced users happily proceed – especially since the reward appears to be right behind the corner.

At this point, it is possible to steer away from 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 said, deceivers bait folks into registration to get bonuses. And all the personal data needed for it – username, email, crypto wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Only by gathering this data 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 at least cryptocurrency purchases on the platform with it, the user should top up the account with the equivalent sum. And this is what starts the final step of the scam.

Step 4: Requesting funds

It is obvious that any crypto purchases require having funds on your account. In the case of Waured, users are also forced to top up to get the bonuses. And these top ups is what creates most of the cash flow to this fraudulent website. By topping up the account, users hope to get the committed gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start participating on this website hoping to use all the transferred funds and withdraw them.

This, however, is where the first obvious issues start to surface. When keeping an eye on the real crypto wallet vs what the website says, you can spot 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

Needless to say that swindlers 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 wireout request. Most of them repeat what KYC regulations say, but in this case they are here exclusively to make the wireout impossible.

By requesting your personal data, deceivers 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 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 Waured.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

• False Celebrity Sponsorship. Waured 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. Waured.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. Waured 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. Waured.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%, Waured preys on the desire for quick profits. Yet, the volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market makes such gains highly unlikely, definitively labeling Waured as a scam.

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Waured 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 duration of the fraud, its masters may get in touch with you with particular documents. Alternatively, they may offer you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to streamline access to your crypto funds. As we previously figured out, these rascals have no intent of giving back your funds. So, what can these emails and browser add-ons represent? Correct – this is another element of the scam designed to entice you into willingly installing harmful programs onto your computer.

Both plugins and files added to emails can function as a carrier for various malware. In this case, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among other kinds of malicious programs. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the chance is always greater than zero. As previously mentioned, their ethics is of little concern, and their dignity is already deeply compromised. They have nothing to give up and strive to boost revenues.

Frequently asked questions