The Truth About Zalunex: Legit or Scam? Our Review

Recently, Zalunex.com website appeared, promoting itself as a platform where you can securely store cryptocurrency and other assets. I managed to gather credible proof that unmistakably indicates it is, actually, a deceptive service.

Regardless of the promises of the most convenient, trustworthy, and customer-centric service, Zalunex.com does not offer any of them. In fact, all this is just a shiny wrap around a blatant scam, which takes your money and never returns them. Any stories about gifts, sponsorship from celebrities etc are non-existent as well.

Zalunex Scam Overview

Originally, Zalunex poses as a cryptocurrency trading & cryptowallet platform with outstandingly low commission fees. Another notable marketing point for this site is backing from 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, con actors employ AI-generated 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 glaring wrap around an obvious scam.

Zalunex Scam

Initially, Zalunex repeats the appearance of numerous equivalent pages. There are quite a few examples, like Rexwexy, Linwexy or Exolyn. They are completely identical in terms of graphic elements, with slight discrepancies in the website header. Other particulars, and at times even crypto wallet addresses, are the same. Presumably, all these scam online platforms are led by a single group of fraudsters.

Cryptocurrency Scam Summary

How the Zalunex Scam Works?

Zalunex is a part of a extensive cryptocurrency scam scheme that started circulating actively in 2023. Rascals who stand behind it use numerous website designs, which still share the same 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 validity 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 mainly target Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Subsequently, the promotional campaign begins. Employing bots and sponsored ads (when achievable), fraud actors intensify the presence of their scam activities to possible victims. And as I said, crooks do not disdain using deepfake for creating videos with the aforementioned celebs that advertise their scam to the public. To boost the folks even more, deceivers claim the bonus for every user who registers the service immediately.

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

Step 2: Gaining Traffic

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

At this point, it is possible to skip the scam without any losses. Before you register using your personal data, 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 mentioned, frauds bait folks into registration for bonuses. And all the personal data needed for it – email, username, crypto wallet address – is valuable for user identification. Exclusively by gathering this info and selling it further into the Darknet, swindlers 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 crypto 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 capital on your account. In the case of Zalunex, users are also coerced to top up to use the bonuses. And this is what creates most of the cash 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 participating on this site hoping to use all the transferred capital 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 notice 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 swindlers are naught on intentions to give your money back. But to make the fraud look more realistic, they’ve developed a whole bunch of reasons to decline the wireout request. Most of them repeat what Know Your Client requirements say, but in this case they are here exclusively to make the wireout 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 would desperately need to undergo before getting your money back. And every check will uncover more and more info of yours, 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 Zalunex.com. Actually, there are a lot of scams that fall under the same points, so they are pretty much universal.

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

What Should I do as a Victim?

If you had to deal with Zalunex 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 duration of the scam, rascals 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 cryptocurrency assets. As we already determined, these rascals have no intention of restoring your funds. So, what do these messages and browser plugins represent? Correct – that is another element of the deceptive plan designed to throw you into willingly running harmful software onto your system.

Both plugins and attachments attached to emails can serve as a carrier for various malicious software. In this case, I expect the presence of spyware and stealers among other types of threats. While it is not obligatory for scammers to distribute malware, the chance is always significant. As previously mentioned, their conscience is of little concern, and their reputation is already severely tarnished. They have no principles to give up and strive to boost profits.

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