As a largely unregulated market, cryptocurrency has its fair share of scams and fraudulent projects – that’s why it pays to use a reputable, regulated platform like Wirex.
We’ve recently noticed an increase in the number of scammers pretending to be us, often by social media and phone. These fraudsters will often attempt to gain access to your wallet address, account passwords and other sensitive information in return for prizes, discounts or crypto ‘airdrops’.
Scams like this can be quite sophisticated. They’ll use Wirex branding, use our details, link to fake websites/support chats/prize wins and set up social media profiles with instructional videos that can be difficult to distinguish from the real thing. That’s why we’ve assembled a checklist to help you steer clear of crypto hoaxers:
1. How were you contacted?
We will never contact you by phone.
If we contact you by email, it will only be from a @mail.wirexapp.com or @wirexapp.com email address, and if by social, it will be from an official channel.
Our Customer Support team will never contact you first unless you have raised an issue or query with us already. You can only contact them by creating a support ticket or in the Support thread on Discord.
If we do reply to you with a direct message or on Discord, we will never ask you for your account details, passwords or any other sensitive information about your account. At most, we’ll request your customer support ticket number or the email address associated with your Wirex account. Nothing else!
If you’ve won a real Wirex competition, we’ll announce it in the same channel that the competition is hosted in, tag you in the post and ask you to contact us to claim your prize. We’ll never contact you first about this, and will wait for you to get in touch, then ask for you for some details such as a wallet address to send you your winnings. You won’t get a link, reference code or form to enter your personal information in. If you have any concerns, check out the T&Cs for the competition which will be hosted on our Discord server or a dedicated page in our Help Centre.
Fraudsters will often make contact through private or direct messages on social platforms like Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram. This is a dead give-away.
Here's an example of a fake Wirex Support account - note that Wirex Support will never contact you first:
2. Have you double-checked on the official Wirex channels?
Whether it’s partnerships, competitions, promotions, new releases or important updates, if it’s not on our website, included in our T&Cs, on our Discord, or mentioned on our official social channels, it’s a scam.
Our official social channels should have thousands of followers and have existed for years, and are:
- Facebook (this will have a blue tick next to it to indicate we are a verified account)
- Medium
- YouTube
- Discord
In APAC, our official social channels are:
We do not have a Telegram channel
Even if something appears on our social channels, always double-check that it is present on the official website – www.wirexapp.com
Here's an example of a fake Wirex Facebook page - notice they only have 3 followers!
3. Does it sound too good to be true?
If an offer sounds too good to be true (free Bitcoin giveaway, 1000% discount etc.), it almost certainly isn’t legitimate. Stay away! It’s mostly asked in BTC (but sometimes other cryptos), and although the prize can vary, it’s usually around 0.06 BTC.
Scammers will often send links to claim your prizes or sort your issues, and they’ll often (but not always!) be shortened as ‘bitly’ links so you can’t see the domain. Do not click on any links that were sent to you, even if they claim to work for Wirex.
All of our real links will have wirexapp.com, and we will never shorten the links unless on LinkedIn, where they’re shortened automatically.
Check out this screenshot of a fake competition posted by from a fake Wirex account - notice the shortened 'bitly' link to claim the reward:
4. Have you been asked to send funds to unlock a prize or solve a problem?
You will never be required to send us money in order to take part in any Wirex promotion or competition. We do not hold airdrops and we will never ask you to send us any kind of currency in order to solve problems with your account. If in doubt, contact our Support Team.
You will also never be asked to pay for a Wirex debit card. Ordering our cards is free.
5. Have you been asked to provide your wallet addresses, Wirex password or other sensitive information?
Wirex will never ask you to provide login details (emails and passwords), bank details or other personal or sensitive information. If someone does, disregard and contact the Support Team.
6. Are you certain the page you’re looking at is actually Wirex?
Fraudsters are capable of creating very sophisticated and convincing imitations of Wirex web pages, social media channels and even videos. Always check the URL – if it’s not our official website (wirexapp.com) or one of the social channels listed above, it’s fake.
We remove fake pages and sites down as soon as we’re aware of them, so contact Support if you suspect the site or social profile you’re looking at is fraudulent. You too can help fight against these scammers by reporting and blocking these pages on the social platform.
Alongside this checklist, there are a number of measures you can take to stay as safe as possible online, including enabling Two-Factor Authentication and regularly changing your password. Check out our guide on how to defend your account against anyone who tries to break into them.
If you have any doubts or think your account has been compromised:
- Change your password immediately
- Contact us by messaging on our (official!) social channels, post on the Discord server, or raise a Customer Support ticket
Stay safe Wirexers!