We Investigated Wixbest: Legit or Scam? The Facts

Recently, Wixbest.cyou site surfaced, promoting itself as a platform to keep cryptocurrency and other assets safely. I managed to gather reliable evidence that clearly reveals it is, in fact, a deceptive site.

Despite the promises of the most convenient, trustworthy, and customer-centric service, Wixbest.cyou does not fulfill any of them. All this is just a shiny wrap around a blatant scam, which steals your funds and never returns them. Any stories about gifts, endorsement from celebrities etc are absent as well.

Wixbest Scam Overview

Originally, Wixbest poses as a crypto trading & cryptowallet service with outstandingly low commission fees. Another notable selling point for this service is partnerships with celebrities that are known in 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 promote the fraud as if it was the best thing in the world. Obviously, Elon Musk is the most common choise for that. But, as I mentioned above, all this is just a vivid wrap around an obvious scam.

Wixbest Scam

To begin with, Wixbest shares the design of multiple equivalent websites. There are quite a few examples, like Moxwin, Luxer or Melaspin. They are completely undistinguishable in terms of graphic elements, with minor discrepancies in the website header. Other specific elements, and sometimes even crypto wallet addresses, are the same. Presumably, all these deceptive sites are managed by a single team of frauds.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Wixbest Scam Works?

Wixbest is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Swindlers who stand behind it use various 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 advanced psychological tricks that make the user believe in the legitimacy of the website. But let’s review them one by one.

Step 1: Promotion

To start the scam, criminals create and fill accounts on popular social media platforms. They primarily focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the advertising campaign starts. Employing bots and paid promotions (when possible), fraud actors boost the exposure of their deceptive activities to potential victims. And as I said, fraudsters do not shy away 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 registers the service immediately.

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

Users receive an encouragement to register, enticed by the commitment of getting crypto rewards valued at hundreds of dollars, all free of charge. To increase the attractiveness of the offer, false suggestions of sponsorship by a celebrity are incorporated. As you may guess, these assertions are entirely baseless.

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

After following the ads, users end up on a page filled with attractive offers. “Crypto starts with Wixbest”, “Your crypto savings are secured with Wixbest, “Start earning with Wixbest – they look rather reliable. To heat up users and make them proceed to step 3, fraudsters say that obtaining the pledged bonus requires registration. And since nothing concerning 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 register using your personal information, 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, scammers bait folks for registration with bonuses. And all the personal information needed for it – username, email, cryptocurrency wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Only by gathering this information and selling it further into the Darknet, swindlers can earn quite a penny. Nonetheless, their plans go much further.

As it turns out, the alleged bonus is not available for withdrawal right away. To make it at least usable for crypto purchases, you need to top up the account with the equivalent sum. At this point, the final stage of the scam kicks in.

Step 4: Requesting funds

Obviously, any cryptocurrency purchases require having funds on your account. In the case of Wixbest, users are also coerced to top up to claim the bonuses. And this is what creates the majority of the money flow to this fraudulent site. 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 credited money and withdraw them.

This is where the first obvious issues start to surface. When keeping an eye on the real cryptocurrency wallet vs what the website says, you can notice that no transactions are done whatsoever. And then, when you’d try to withdraw the money 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 are naught on intentions to return your money. But to make the denial look more legitimate, 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 exclusively to make the wireout impossible.

By asking for your personal info, frauds just stall hoping for you to understand that you’ve been scammed and stop contacting them. If you don’t – well, there are numerous other checks you would desperately need to undergo before getting your funds back. And every check will reveal 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 Wixbest.cyou. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Wixbest 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 course of the fraud, rascals may reach out to you with particular documents. Alternatively, they may suggest you to deploy “cryptocurrency wallet applications” or “browser extensions” to simplify access to your cryptocurrency savings. As we previously figured out, these deceivers have no intent of returning your money. So, what can these email messages and browser add-ons represent? You guessed it right – this is another component of the fraudulent scheme designed to entice you into deliberately running harmful software onto your system.

Both plugins and files included to email messages can function as a carrier for different malicious software. In this situation, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among other forms of threats. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the chance is always above zero. As previously mentioned, their ethics is of no concern, and their dignity is already severely tarnished. They have no principles to lose and aim to maximize profits.

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