We Investigated Winto-X: Legit or Scam? The Facts

Recently, Winto-x.com service popped up, promoting itself as a place where you can securely keep cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather reliable proof that unmistakably indicates it is, in fact, a scam service.

Despite the promises of the most user-friendly, reliable, and customer-centric service, Winto-x.com does not offer any of them. In fact, all this is just a shiny wrap around a blatant scam, which takes your funds and never gives them back. Any stories about bonuses, sponsorship from celebrities etc are nowhere to be found as well.

Winto-X Scam Overview

Originally, Winto-X poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet platform with outstandingly low commission fees. Another bright marketing point for this service 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 claims having significant support from them. To make these claims look more realistic, frauds use AI-generated videos where those celebrities promote the fake crypto service as the best thing in the world. For obvious reasons, Elon Musk is the most common choise for that. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a blatant wrap around an obvious scam.

Winto-X Scam

To begin with, Winto-X repeats the design of multiple similar online platforms. There are quite a few examples, like Wexowin, Vvinkslots or Velubet. They are totally indistinguishable in terms of visual elements, with small discrepancies in the site header. Other specific elements, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are matching. Probably, all these fraudulent websites are led by the same team of scammers.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Winto-X Scam Works?

Winto-X is a part of a large cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Rascals who stand behind it use several website designs, which still share the similar 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 advanced 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 begin the deceptive scheme, criminals set up and fill accounts on well-liked social media platforms. They mainly focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign commences. Employing bots and sponsored ads (when possible), scam actors boost the presence of their fraudulent activities to potential victims. And as I said, scammers do not disdain using deepfake for creating videos with the mentioned celebs that advertise their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, frauds claim the bonus for every user who joins the service immediately.

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

Users obtain an encouragement to register, attracted by the promise of getting crypto prizes valued at thousands of dollars, all without cost. To enhance the attractiveness of the offer, false claims of sponsorship by a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these assertions are entirely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

Upon following the promotions, users end up on a page filled with attractive offers. “Crypto starts with Winto-X”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Winto-X, “Start earning with Winto-X – they look rather credible. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, scammers say that retrieving the promoted bonus requires registration. And since nothing questionable happens at this point, unexperienced users happily keep on – 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 info, frauds will not 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, frauds bait folks into signing up to get bonuses. And all the personal info needed for it – email, username, cryptocurrency wallet address – are valuable for user identification. Solely by gathering this data and selling it further into the Darknet, fraudsters can earn quite a penny. Still, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, the claimed bonus is not available to use right away. To make at least cryptocurrency purchases on the platform with it, you need to top up the account with the equivalent sum. At this point, the final stage of the scam begins.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Obviously, any cryptocurrency purchases require you to have funds on your account. With Winto-X, users are also coerced to top up to claim the bonuses. And this is what creates most of the money flow to this fraudulent site. By topping up the account, users hope to get the promised gift (usually $500-1000 in USDT), and may start trading on this site 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 retrieve the funds from your account, the scam is finally uncovered to the user.

Step 5: Escaping from Funds Withdrawal

Needless to say that scoundrels are naught on intentions to send you money. But to make the fraud look more legitimate, they’ve made up a whole pack of reasons to decline the transfer-out request. Usually, they repeat what Know Your Client requirements say, but for the Winto-x.com they are here only to make the withdrawal impossible.

By requesting 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 should go through before getting your funds back. And each of these checks will uncover more and more information, which – you guessed it right – will be then sold 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 Winto-x.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

• Absent company details. Winto-X 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 Winto-X 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 Winto-X, 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 Winto-X is a definite scam.

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Winto-X 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 scam, fraudsters may reach out to you with particular files. Alternatively, they may offer you to set up “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to streamline access to your cryptocurrency funds. As we previously figured out, these deceivers have no intention of returning your funds. So, what do these messages and browser extensions represent? Correct – this is another element of the scam designed to throw you into willingly installing destructive programs onto your device.

Both add-ons and attachments attached to email messages can act as a carrier for various malicious code. In this situation, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among all kinds of threats. While it is not mandatory for scammers to distribute malware, the likelihood is always significant. As noted, their morality is of little concern, and their dignity is already neck deep in mud. They have nothing to give up and intend to maximize revenues.

Frequently asked questions