We received the following complaint regarding a scam at Taurus-btc.com:

I invested $1,500 in Taurus-btc.com, and my girlfriend invested $3,500, expecting to earn Bitcoin worth $22,325. The site charges a 20% service fee ($4,460), so we began paying in installments due to Cash App limits. After paying $4,200, the site flagged our account and demanded an additional $4,000 deposit, claiming it would be refunded in 7 days. The deadline is the 16th, or they will freeze our account.

This is not the first complaint we received about this scam. In April 2024, we received the following complaint from a person who reported being scammed for $2500:

I was scammed into paying taxes for a crypto exchange to withdraw my money. They didn’t let me withdraw, claiming I needed to pay taxes. I talked to friends, and everyone sent some money to them, only to find out this was a scam.

Please share your story below if you’ve had similar experiences with Taurus-btc.com.

Domain Analysis

The domain taurus-btc.com was registered on December 1, 2023, through Gname.com Pte. Ltd., and it is set to expire on December 1, 2024. The domain’s status is marked as clientTransferProhibited, indicating restrictions on transferring the domain to another registrar. The domain uses Cloudflare’s name servers, cass.ns.cloudflare.com, and hasslo.ns.cloudflare.com for DNS management.

Hosted by Cloudflare, Inc., with an IP address of 104.21.0.143 and located in Toronto, Canada, the site creates an impression of legitimacy through its professional appearance and well-maintained infrastructure.

The WHOIS data for Taurus-btc.com reveals that the registrant’s contact information is redacted for privacy, a common practice among fraudulent sites to avoid detection and accountability. The administrative and technical contacts are similarly obscured.

Taurus-btc.com Review

Despite its professional-looking infrastructure, Taurus-btc.com’s functionality is dubious. Although its polished appearance presents a facade of legitimacy, the real intention is to deceive users into investing significant sums of money with the false promise of high returns.

The site redirects users to https://taurus-btc.com/#/pages/index/error, displaying a message to visit the wallet application. This adds another layer of complexity and confusion for users. This redirect and the message to “visit in wallet” obfuscate the site’s true intentions and make it difficult for users to ascertain its legitimacy.

The provided image is a warning message from the website taurus-btc.com, indicating that the user should visit the site using a wallet application. The message reads:

Warn reminder. Please visit in wallet. You are currently visiting a decentralized website, please run it in the wallet application.

There is a button labeled “Copy link,” which appears to copy the URL to the clipboard: https://taurus-btc.com.

Upon visiting the provided URL, it redirects to https://taurus-btc.com/#/pages/index/error, which displays an error page.

Examining the source code reveals the following:

• The HTML content includes standard meta tags for charset, viewport, and cache control.
• The page title is “Taurus.”
• A CSS file named `index.2da1efab.css` is linked.
• Several JavaScript files are present, including `charting_library.min.js`, `chunk-vendors.1715651042738.js`, and `index.1715651042738.js`.
• A comment indicates “BAIDU_STAT,” suggesting some form of analytics or tracking.

The content from Taurus-btc.com primarily consists of a warning message and a redirection to an error page when attempting to access the main site. The site prompts users to access it via a wallet application, a common tactic used in cryptocurrency-related platforms to interact with decentralized applications (dApps).

The website does not provide contact details, addresses, emails, phone numbers, or social media accounts directly visible in the provided content or the page source. Additionally, no company or regulatory information is provided, which is often critical for verifying the legitimacy of financial and investment-related websites.

Red Flags

1. Redirection to an Error Page: Legitimate websites typically do not redirect users to an error page, especially without providing further information or contact details. This behavior is suspicious and indicates a poorly managed or deceptive site.
2. Lack of Contact Information: The absence of contact details, including addresses, emails, or phone numbers, is a significant red flag. Genuine businesses, particularly those handling financial transactions, are transparent about their contact information.
3. Prompts to Use a Wallet Application: While accessing certain decentralized applications via a wallet is standard, the site’s insistence on doing so without providing any preliminary information raises concerns. This could be a tactic to lead users to a fraudulent interface that could compromise their wallet information.
4. Use of “BAIDU_STAT”: The mention of “BAIDU_STAT” suggests tracking or analytics, which is not unusual in itself. However, it is worth noting if there are concerns about data privacy and the location of servers, especially in the context of financial data.
5. Cache-Control Tags: The use of “no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate” tags in the metadata indicates that the site does not want to store any data locally on the user’s device. This might prevent any trace of user activity, which can be a tactic to avoid detecting fraudulent activities.

Taurus-BTC.com Reviews

The Google search results for Taurus-btc.com indicate several red flags and suggest that the website may not be legitimate. Here are the relevant findings:

1. ScamAdviser: The site taurus-btc.com is mentioned on ScamAdviser, a tool used to check if a website is legit and reliable. The link provided suggests that users can report scams and check reviews on the platform, indicating that there might be concerns about the website’s legitimacy.
2. Scam Detector: Scam Detector has given taurus-btc.com one of the lowest trust scores, rating it at 7.9. This low score signals that the business could be a scam.
3. Scamdoc: Scamdoc also provides a negative review of Taurus-btc.com, assigning it a bad trust score of 1%. The site offers detailed trust scores, user ratings, and in-depth analysis, which suggests significant doubts about its legitimacy.

The reviews and analysis provided by ScamAdviser, Scam Detector, and Scamdoc are overwhelmingly negative, suggesting that taurus-btc.com is likely a scam. These platforms’ low trust scores and warnings highlight serious concerns about the website’s legitimacy.

• Scam Detector and Scamdoc have given taurus-btc.com very low trust scores, indicating a high likelihood of fraudulent activity.
• There are no positive reviews or reliable sources indicating that taurus-btc.com is a trustworthy site.
• The site’s presence on multiple scam-reporting platforms is a significant red flag. These platforms specialize in identifying and warning users about potential scams.

Bottom Line

Given the comprehensive analysis and the overwhelmingly negative feedback from reputable sources, it is prudent to approach taurus-btc.com with extreme caution. The consistently low trust scores and the lack of any positive endorsements from trusted review platforms raise serious concerns about the legitimacy of this site. The absence of clear contact information and the site’s suspicious behavior, such as redirecting to an error page and insisting on access via a wallet application, further undermine its credibility.

Given these red flags, it is reasonable to conclude that taurus-btc.com exhibits many characteristics commonly associated with online scams. While it is always important to conduct thorough research and exercise due diligence when dealing with financial platforms, the evidence in this case strongly suggests that Taurus-btc.com is not a trustworthy site. Therefore, it is advisable to avoid engaging with this website and seek more reliable and transparent alternatives for cryptocurrency-related transactions.