August 31, 2022
We're Not cashcrates.co, And Yes It's A Scam
TLDR; A site popped up in April 2020 called “cashcrates.co”, just months after we closed our long-running rewards program. They took advantage of our reputation to lure in new users, then they refused to payout and disappeared.
In 2019, we closed our rewards program after having operated it since 2006. During that time we paid out millions of dollars to our members and became known as one of the trusted, go-to rewards sites.
A Scam Emerges
Several months after we closed our doors, we noticed complaints flowing into popular review sites claiming that we’d scammed them. Needless to say, this was extremely confusing for us, since we hadn’t operated a rewards program since the year prior.
After more research, we realized someone registered the domain cashcrates.co and setup a sham site. They marketed themselves as if they were us, acquired users, then refused to pay them. No wonder the bad reviews were everywhere.
It’s Not The First Time
It turns out this scammer–whoever it is–has done this sort of thing before. Ray from Cybercash Worldwide has an excellent write-up on cashcrates.co and their long history of running similar scams.
This individual or group ran this scam with no less than five other sites that are exact copies of cashcrates.co in every way except for the name. They even reused the same fake photos and testimonials. Ultimately it’s hard to say who exactly is behind these sites, because their domain has their whois information blocked and the countries they claim they operate in show no record of their business.
The “Exit Scam”
“Exit scamming” is a term that entered the popular lexicon through the rise of cryptocurrency. Individuals or organizations would setup their own crypocurrencies or crypto-backed companies, get people to buy in, then they’d shutdown operations and take everyone’s money.
That’s essentially what cashcrates.co has done here. Their website was taken offline and up until recently was competely blank. Now when you visit (and we don’t recommend that you do), you’re redirected to a series of shady advertisements.
Unfortunately, if you’re attempting to delete your account or find your login info, you’re out of luck. They’re gone and likely have moved on to their next scam.