Threat Actors Created a Fake Starlink Website to Scam People

Starlink is an international internet services provider company owned by Elon Musk. The company name was recently used by scammers to dupe people in Iran. The scammers ran a very elaborate and detailed crypto scam by perfectly mimicking the real website of Starlink. It should be noted that open internet services are something that Iranians do not have many service providers for.

Therefore, it makes Iran a great place for conducting internet services-related scams. The planning and the preparation of this scam show that the scammers thought out the scheme well. It would have been almost impossible for an average person to intercept the said scam on their own. However, the surprising fact is that Starlink does not offer services to Iranian consumers thus far.

Scammers Asked their Victims to Pay in Bitcoin

The scammers made a perfect copy of the official Starlink website for Iranian customers. The perfect mimicry of the website was not detected by the site management team at SpaceX incidentally. Moreover, the scammers asked their victims to pay a hardware fee of $249 and a monthly subscription fee of $49. The scammers also convinced the users to send these payments in Bitcoin.

Since Elon Musk is a known crypto proponent, many victims did not question the way that the payment was required in cryptocurrencies. However, one point of great concern was that the scam website told users that these payments would be processed confidentially. Considering the high demand for internet services in Iran and a large number of crypto holders, the scammers found the perfect place to run their con-scheme.

This particular scam has been put into the category of elaborate schemes that were well-planned, and there was little room for doubt. The scammers put a lot of effort into making the Starlink website as convincingly resembling the real one as possible. Since the beginning of the year, crypto scams have increased by a great number.

While police and law enforcement agencies are trying to educate people about such frauds, scammers are becoming more cautious. The best way for a person to be saved from any crypto-related scam is to do some research before investing their money or cryptocurrencies into any scams. It should be noted that despite the alert issued about the scam, the copycat website is still online.