A lot of people have started paying attention to Monero as of late. This also means people are looking for proper wallets to store their XMR. Keeping funds on an exchange is absolutely not done in the world of cryptocurrency, as there is zero reason to do so. Unfortunately, not all Monero-themed wallets are legitimate either. Wallet-Monero, for example, is a pure scam and should be avoided at all costs.
Wallet-Monero is not an Official Project
When people enter the phrase “Monero wallet” in any search engine, odds are they will come across the Wallet-Monero website sooner or later. While this website may seem genuine and somewhat professional, it is evident the service is not endorsed by the Monero community in any official capacity. There are a few working wallet solutions for Monero right now, with Ledger and TREZOR support to follow in the next few months.
The list of “approved” Monero wallets contains no mention of Wallet-Monero. This goes to show the company has no honest intentions whatsoever, and the service should be avoided at all costs. Although it may seem like a genuine web wallet solution, the only service people should trust is MyMonero, which is the only official web wallet and is run by the XMR developers themselves. Any other service claiming to provide similar functionality is not legitimate until proven otherwise.
Moreover, it appears a scam called Wallet Monero has existed before. That site claimed to let users convert other cryptocurrencies to and from Monero and store them online. It is unclear whether the same administrator has revived the old scam with a new twist. Wallet-Monero’s layout and advertised features are very similar to those of the other site going by almost the same name.
While it is commendable to see Wallet-Monero refer to XMR as the “best cryptocurrency in the world”, it is doubtful this scam will attract a lot of attention. That can only be considered a good thing; otherwise, people might lose a lot of hard-earned money this way. This is neither the first nor the last Monero scam web wallet we will come across in the months to come. With the popularity of this private and fungible cryptocurrency on the rise, it is to be expected that certain individuals will attempt to capitalize on this momentum.
The Wallet-Monero website also claims that all rights are reserved by Monero. That is a very big red flag, considering that the Monero team has not officially endorsed this wallet nor are they involved in its development or maintenance. While the contact address listed on the website is the same as that found in the WHOIS information, it is doubtful there is anything legitimate about this project. Moreover, the website mentions there is 24/7 support, but the site’s template references opening hours of Monday to Saturday between 9 AM and 7 PM. All of this is very odd, to say the least.
Last but not least, the domain name was registered about a week ago, which further indicates this platform should not be trusted. People looking for a proper Monero wallet will need to do their homework and avoid the multiple scams floating around on the Internet. Cryptocurrency is all about taking full control over one’s funds at all times and sacrificing a bit of convenience. That generally means that using exchanges or even web wallets should be out of the question from the start.
