FRAUD AND SCAM AWARENESS

1. INTRODUCTION

Unigox is a cross-border payment platform. We work with licensed local partners so that individuals and businesses can send, receive and pay out money in more than 40 currencies.

Fast payments attract fraudsters. This page explains the scams most common on payment platforms like ours, on the fiat side and on the crypto side, how to protect yourself from each, and what Unigox does to keep fraud off our platform.

1.1 Fraud or scam?

Fraud is when a criminal gets hold of your sign-in code, your account or your identity and uses them without your knowledge.

A scam is when a criminal convinces you to do something yourself: send money, buy crypto, pass on a code, lend your account. Scams are harder to stop than fraud, because the payment is made by you.

1.2 Signs common to almost every scam

•It came out of nowhere. A message, a call, a friend request, a job offer you did not ask for.

•You are rushed. A deadline, a frozen account, an opportunity that closes today.

•It is too good to be true. Guaranteed returns, free crypto, a salary far above the work.

•You are asked to keep it quiet. Not to tell your bank, your family, or us.

•The payment is unusual. Crypto, a gift card, a transfer to someone else's account, a fee before you can receive money.

If you notice even one of these, stop. Nothing genuine is lost by waiting a day and asking someone you trust.

2. TYPES OF SCAMS AND HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF

2.1 Fiat scams

These happen on the local-currency side of a trade: the money moving through your bank account, mobile money wallet or payment app.

Paying or receiving money on someone else's behalf

How it works. Someone asks you to buy crypto for them using money they will send to your account, or offers to pay for your trade from their own account because theirs "has a higher limit". It is often dressed up as a small job, "payment agent" or "transaction processor", with a commission for every transfer. The money is almost always stolen from another victim, and you become the person it passes through. This is called being a money mule, and it is a crime in most countries even if you did not know where the money came from.

How to protect yourself.

•Only pay for trades from a bank or mobile money account in your own name, and only receive money into accounts in your own name.

•Never let anyone send money to your account so that you can "forward" it or buy crypto with it.

•Turn down any job that involves moving money through your personal account.

On Unigox, payments must come from an account matching your verified identity. A payment from anyone else is not accepted, and the crypto is not released.

Fake payment receipts and fake bank messages

How it works. This one targets people selling crypto. The buyer sends a screenshot of a transfer, a PDF receipt or a forwarded SMS that looks exactly like your bank's. The money never left their account. Then comes the pressure: "I've paid, release now, I'm in a hurry." Fake receipts often give themselves away with mismatched fonts, odd spacing or the wrong amount, but good ones can look perfect.

How to protect yourself.

•Only confirm that you have been paid after you have logged in to your own bank or mobile money app and seen the money arrive.

•Never rely on a screenshot, a receipt or an SMS alone.

•Confirming receipt on Unigox releases the crypto and cannot be undone. If the money is not in your account, do not confirm. Open a dispute instead.

Payment reversals and chargebacks

How it works. The buyer pays you, you release the crypto, and then the payment is pulled back through a chargeback on a payment app, a reversal request to a mobile money provider, or a claim to their bank that the transfer was unauthorised or sent by mistake. Sometimes the buyer contacts you afterwards claiming they "sent it to the wrong person" and asks you to refund it directly, while also filing a reversal. You end up with neither the crypto nor the money.

How to protect yourself.

•Some payment methods, payment apps in particular, let the sender dispute a payment after it is made.

•If someone asks you to send money back because of a "mistaken" payment, do not refund it yourself. Contact us and let your bank or provider handle it.

•Keep your trade records. They are your evidence if a reversal is attempted.

Lending or selling your account

How it works. Someone offers you money to open a Unigox account in your name and hand over access, or to "verify" an account for them using your ID and a selfie. They may say they are in a country we do not serve, or that their own verification failed. Once they have it, the account is used to move stolen money, and it is your name on it.

How to protect yourself.

•Never verify an account for someone else, and never share access to your own.

•Never send your ID documents or a selfie to anyone outside the Unigox verification flow.

Our Terms of Service allow you to use Unigox only for yourself. Accounts used on someone else's behalf are closed.

"Money waiting for you" and advance fees

How it works. You are told there is a refund, a prize, a loan, an inheritance or a frozen balance in your name, sometimes supposedly at Unigox. To release it, you first need to pay a fee, a tax or a "verification deposit". Once you pay, another fee appears.

How to protect yourself.

•Nobody legitimate asks you to pay money in order to receive money.

•Unigox never asks for a payment to unlock, release or verify funds.

2.2 Crypto scams

These involve crypto: when you withdraw your balance to a crypto wallet, or when someone persuades you to buy crypto and send it on. Remember one thing above everything else: a blockchain transaction cannot be reversed, by anyone, including us. Once crypto leaves your wallet for someone else's address, it is gone.

Investment scams and fake trading platforms

How it works. It usually starts as a friendly conversation: a wrong-number message, a dating app, a WhatsApp or Telegram investment group. Over days or weeks, the person earns your trust and introduces an opportunity: a trading platform, a mentor, a signal group. You are asked to buy crypto on a real platform like ours and send it to the investment site. The site shows your balance growing fast. You may even be allowed a small withdrawal. When you try to take out more, there are taxes, fees or a minimum balance to meet first. This is often called "pig butchering", and it is behind some of the largest crypto losses reported worldwide.

How to protect yourself.

•Treat any investment suggested by someone you only know online as a scam until proven otherwise.

•A balance on a website is not money. If you cannot withdraw it freely, it does not exist.

•Be suspicious of anyone who tells you what to say if your bank or Unigox asks why you are buying crypto.

•No real investment guarantees returns.

Romance scams

How it works. A relationship builds online over weeks or months. The person is attentive and kind, and somehow never able to meet or appear on video. Eventually there is a need: an emergency, a medical bill, a customs fee, a plane ticket, or an investment you could make together. They ask to be paid in crypto because it is "faster".

How to protect yourself.

•Never send money or crypto to someone you have not met in person.

•Talk to a friend or family member before sending anything. Scammers work hard to stop you doing exactly that.

Fake jobs and task scams

How it works. A recruiter contacts you about remote work: rating products, completing online tasks, processing payments. The first few tasks pay small amounts. Then you are asked to top up your "work account" in crypto to unlock bigger tasks or withdraw your earnings, and the amounts keep growing.

How to protect yourself.

•A real employer pays you. It never asks you to pay in order to work or to get your wages.

•Any job that requires you to buy crypto is a scam.

Fake giveaways, airdrops and bonuses

How it works. A post, an ad or a message promises free crypto, a doubled deposit or a special bonus, often using the name and logo of a well-known company, sometimes ours, and sometimes a deepfake video of a public figure. To claim it, you send a small amount first or connect your wallet to a website.

How to protect yourself.

•There is no free crypto. Any offer that asks you to send crypto to receive crypto is a scam.

•Unigox promotions are only announced on unigox.com and our official accounts, and never ask you to send crypto to us or anyone else to claim them.

Wallet drainers and malicious approvals

How it works. You connect your wallet to a website, perhaps a fake airdrop or a copy of a well-known app, and it asks you to approve a transaction. What you are actually signing is permission for the site to move your tokens. Once approved, a script empties your wallet within seconds, with no further action needed from you.

How to protect yourself.

•Only connect your wallet to sites you reached by typing the address yourself.

•Never sign a transaction or approval you do not fully understand, especially one asking for unlimited access to a token.

Address poisoning and copy-paste attacks

How it works. When you send crypto, you usually copy the address from somewhere. Scammers exploit this in two ways. Some send a tiny transaction from an address that looks almost identical to one you use, with the same first and last few characters, so that it appears in your history, hoping you will copy it next time. Others install malware that silently swaps any address you copy for their own.

How to protect yourself.

•Before sending, check the whole address, not just the beginning and end.

•Do not copy addresses from your transaction history.

•For large amounts, send a small test first and confirm it arrived.

"We can recover your crypto"

How it works. After a loss, you are contacted by a recovery agency, a "blockchain investigator", a law firm or someone claiming to work with the police or a regulator. They say they can trace and return your funds for a fee paid upfront. Scammers share lists of victims, so these offers often arrive days after the first loss.

How to protect yourself.

•Completed blockchain transactions cannot be reversed by any private company.

•Anyone asking for an upfront fee to recover lost crypto is running a second scam. Report the original loss to the police instead. Reporting is free.

2.3 Scams targeting your Unigox account

These can hit either side, because they aim at the account itself.

Fake Unigox support

How it works. You post a question or a complaint publicly, and within minutes someone messages you on Telegram, WhatsApp or X, using our name and logo. Or you receive an email or text about a "blocked payment", a "failed verification" or "suspicious activity". They offer to help, and the help involves your sign-in code, a payment, confirming or cancelling a trade, or a link to a site that looks like ours.

How to protect yourself.

•Unigox never messages you first on Telegram, WhatsApp, X or any other messenger.

•Unigox has no phone support and never calls customers. Any call from "Unigox" is a scam.

•Emails from Unigox only come from addresses ending in @unigox.com. Your sign-in code always comes from noreply+welcome@unigox.com and expires after 10 minutes.

Our official channels are listed below. If it is not on this list, it is not us.

•Website: unigox.com

•Support: support@unigox.com and the live chat on unigox.com

•Compliance: bogdan@unigox.com

•Telegram: t.me/unigox_global

•X: x.com/Unigox_global

•Apps: App Store and Google Play only

If you come across anyone impersonating Unigox, tell us at support@unigox.com.

Stolen sign-in codes and remote access

How it works. When you sign in to Unigox with your email, we send you a one-time verification code. Anyone who has that code can sign in as you. Scammers invent a reason to ask for it: a security check, a refund, a verification step. A variation is to ask you to install screen-sharing software such as AnyDesk, TeamViewer or Quick Assist "to help", so they can read your codes as they arrive.

How to protect yourself.

•Never share a verification code with anyone, including someone who says they work at Unigox. We will never ask for it.

•A code you did not request means someone is trying to get into your account. Contact us straight away.

•Never install remote-access software at someone else's request.

•In Settings, under Security, require a PIN or a Google Authenticator code before crypto can be sent from your wallet or released from a trade. Then a sign-in code alone is not enough to move your funds.

Phishing websites and fake apps

How it works. An ad, a search result or a message takes you to a site that copies ours down to the last detail, on a slightly different address. Or someone sends you an app file and tells you it is the new version. Anything you enter or sign there goes to the scammer.

How to protect yourself.

•Always type unigox.com yourself or use a bookmark.

•Never install an app from a file sent to you.

3. WHAT UNIGOX DOES TO FIGHT FRAUD

3.1 Regulated and accountable. UNIGOX NETWORK CORP. is registered with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) as a money services business, registration number C100001069, and with the Bank of Canada as a payment service provider under the Retail Payment Activities Act. We operate under a written Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Compliance Program, formally approved by the company and overseen by a dedicated Compliance Officer. The program is reviewed every year, and every member of our team is trained on it when they join and regularly after that.

3.2 Knowing who our customers are. Before you use Unigox beyond small amounts, we verify your identity with a government-issued photo ID and a live selfie check. Documents are checked for authenticity, and every customer is screened against international sanctions lists, lists of politically exposed persons and adverse media. Forged or edited documents end the relationship, and creating extra accounts to get around limits is not allowed. Customers whose details do not add up, or who try to hide where they are, receive a closer review before they can continue.

3.3 Checking every payment. The name on every incoming fiat payment is compared with the verified identity of the person trading. Payments from third parties are not accepted, and the crypto is not released. Where a bank does not pass on the sender's name, we ask for the receipt from the customer's own bank and read it. We reject receipts that belong to a different payment or have already been used for another trade.

3.4 Protecting every trade. When you buy crypto, the seller's crypto is locked in escrow before you pay, in a multi-signature smart contract that needs two of three signatures to release. There is no chat between buyer and seller, so nobody can pressure you, send you different payment details or move you off the platform during a trade. If a seller says a payment never arrived, the dispute goes to our moderators, who decide on the evidence.

3.5 Screening crypto. Every crypto deposit to and withdrawal from Unigox is screened with blockchain analytics. Transactions involving high-risk addresses, such as those linked to fraud, theft, ransomware, sanctions, darknet markets or mixing services, are rejected, and in the most serious cases the account involved is blocked.

3.6 Monitoring activity. We check the IP address and device behind every transaction, and our compliance team monitors activity on an ongoing basis for patterns that point to fraud, money mule activity or money laundering. When something looks unusual, we may ask what a transaction is for or where the funds came from, and pause the account until we have an answer. We do not serve customers in sanctioned or prohibited jurisdictions, and we meet our reporting obligations to Canadian authorities in full.

3.7 Keeping your account secure. In Settings, under Security, you can require a PIN or a Google Authenticator code before crypto is sent from your wallet or released from a trade. When you buy crypto, we tell you on the spot if the payment has to come from your own account, if your bank's receipt does not show the sender's name, or if your payment is being reviewed, and what to do next.

3.8 If you think you have been scammed

1. Stop. Do not send more money or crypto, and do not pay anything that is supposed to fix the problem or get your money back.

2. Tell us straight away through the live chat on unigox.com or at support@unigox.com, from the email address registered to your account. We can restrict access to your account while we look into it, and the first hours matter most. Tell us what happened and when, and send screenshots of your conversations with the scammer.

3. Call your bank or mobile money provider if money left your account. If you reach them quickly, they may be able to stop or recall the payment.

4. Secure your account. Change your email password, sign out of other devices, and turn on PIN or Google Authenticator protection in Settings, under Security.

5. Report it to the police. Download the receipt for each trade involved (open the trade in your trade history and choose Download receipt) and take it with you, together with the screenshots and any details you have about the scammer: names, phone numbers, account numbers, wallet addresses, websites. If the police or another authority contacts us about your case, we cooperate and provide the records we hold, as the law allows.

We handle your report under the complaints process set out in section 17 of our Terms of Service. If you are not satisfied with how we handled it, write to our compliance team at bogdan@unigox.com.