{"id":26514,"date":"2024-04-03T21:12:37","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T21:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/?p=26514"},"modified":"2024-06-14T12:13:01","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T12:13:01","slug":"vortax-a-fake-scam-ai-company-just-like-the-old-ico-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2024\/04\/03\/vortax-a-fake-scam-ai-company-just-like-the-old-ico-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Vortax: a fake scam AI company. Just like the old ICO days!"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Amy is busy with all manner of disconcerting nonsense that at least isn\u2019t crypto. So let\u2019s have some fun with a scammer while we wait for her!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Lots of AI companies sell a fake product \u2014 where the product doesn\u2019t work or where the \u201ccompletely automated\u201d system is a lot of underpaid workers in a cheap country.<\/p>\n<p>Amazon is the most recent example \u2014 their \u201cJust Walk Out\u201d shopping experience, which was allegedly using AI-backed cameras to replace cashiers, was really running on thousands of underpaid staff in India monitoring the screens. [<a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/amazon-reportedly-ditches-just-walk-out-grocery-stores-1851381116\"><i>Gizmodo<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>But the AI scam cycle is at the stage where there\u2019s money in creating companies that don\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n<p>The scam in this case appears to be trying to get someone to download a malwared video conferencing app in the hope of stealing their cryptos. It wasn&#8217;t entirely clear, though, because the scam wasn\u2019t sufficiently functional to actually work.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2024\/04\/03\/vortax-a-fake-scam-ai-company-just-like-the-old-ico-days\/vortax\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-26516\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-26516\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/vortax.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"340\" height=\"210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/vortax.png 680w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/vortax-300x185.png 300w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/vortax-348x215.png 348w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 340px) 100vw, 340px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Welcome to Vortax<\/h3>\n<p>Our source was contacted on Twitter by someone who said that a small venture capital firm with a podcast would like to do an episode with them. They\u2019d done podcasts before, so that was fine and plausible. The podcast would be done using an app called Vortax.<\/p>\n<p>Vortax\u2019s claimed product is a Zoom clone that transcribes, summarises and translates meetings live. This is <i>plausible <\/i>\u2014 as a product that can\u2019t possibly work properly yet, but someone would try to sell it anyway. Very AI.<\/p>\n<p>Vortax\u2019s address is listed on its Twitter as 1100 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario M6K 1E6, a mixed-use development with hireable working space. But there is no company called \u201cVortax\u201d registered in Ontario.<\/p>\n<p>This \u201cVortax\u201d is not on Crunchbase \u2014 though there is a different (and real) company of that name, a web marketing firm in Colorado, who are innocent in this affair. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crunchbase.com\/organization\/vortax\"><i>Crunchbase<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<h3>Twitter<\/h3>\n<p>Vortax\u2019s Twitter account is @vortaxspace. [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/vortaxspace\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/6IvAd\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>The account was created in 2022 \u2014 though there are no tweets before 2024. It\u2019s a gold-tick paid account (a basic gold-verified account is $200 a month), with over 9,000 followers and six paying subscribers!<\/p>\n<p>Most of the tweet stream is reposts of tweets from OpenAI and Scale AI. There are five original tweets, from 6 March and 13 March. All responses to the original tweets are obvious bots, some broken.<\/p>\n<h3>Medium blog<\/h3>\n<p>Vortax has a blog on Medium. The posts are on how to have a successful online meeting. All posts are from 7,8 and 9 December 2023. [<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@vortax\/\"><i>Medium<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/1ctso\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>More fun happens when you search for fragments of claimed customer quotes. If you compare Vortax\u2019s post about charity site Every.org to a post on CB Insights about another video conferencing app, Vowel, you\u2019ll see that the customer quotes are word-for-word identical \u2014 but altered to be about Vortax rather than Vowel! [<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@vortax\/how-every-org-uses-vortax-to-build-a-better-remote-culture-ab70f88e0755\"><i>Medium<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/52NFM\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbinsights.com\/company\/vowel-1\/customers\"><i>CB Insights<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Vowel actually sold the product that Vortax claims to sell, but there\u2019s evidence for Vowel&#8217;s existence. [<i>Vowel, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20230118154810\/https:\/\/www.vowel.com\/features\/automated-meeting-summaries\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Vortax lifts from other sources too. The post \u201c60+ check-in questions for more engaging meetings\u201d is a lightly AI-rewritten lift from AI-for-meetings startup Dive. [<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@vortax\/60-check-in-questions-for-more-engaging-meetings-af9d3f35b178\"><i>Medium<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/hbu2u\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.letsdive.io\/blog\/60-check-in-questions-for-meetings\"><i>Dive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<h3>vortax.io<\/h3>\n<p>The Vortax website is at either <a href=\"https:\/\/vortax.space\">vortax.space<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/vortax.io\">vortax.io<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/vortax.app\/\">vortax.app<\/a> \u2014 all three worked yesterday, but as I write this vortax.space shows \u201cThis site is suspended\u201d in Russian. vortax.io still works. They seem to change names a lot. [<i>vortax.space, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/AHqoM\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a><i>; vortax.io, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/BIeIU\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a><i>; vortax.app, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/5ztMQ\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Have a look through the site and count the red flags:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">There is no team page.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">On the pricing page, none of the links to buy plans work. [<a href=\"https:\/\/vortax.io\/pricing\"><i>Vortax<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/YnUAn\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">On the download page, none of the download links work. [<a href=\"https:\/\/vortax.io\/download\"><i>Vortax<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/qxLS6\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">App Store and Google Play are both labeled \u201cComming Soon\u201d \u2014 with a typo.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Our guy tried emailing Vortax at the email link on their site (support@vortax.space) about the typo on their download page \u2014 and the email bounced.<\/p>\n<p>The website domain names weren\u2019t registered until 3 and 4 January 2024, to a Russian registrar. This is odd for a company with a pile of Gartner badges for achievements in 2023 and whose Twitter was created in 2022. [<a href=\"https:\/\/who.is\/whois\/vortax.space\"><i>who.is<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/who.is\/whois\/vortax.io\"><i>who.is<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<h3>Don\u2019t ask Y<\/h3>\n<p>Vowel&#8217;s video service was terminated as of 15 December 2023. The Vowel website last worked in February. [<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vowel.com\/\">Vowel<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/Ysal6\">archive<\/a> of 3 April 2024, <a href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20240207070731\/https:\/\/www.vowel.com\/\">archive<\/a> of 7 February 2024<\/em>]<\/p>\n<p>Most of the Vortax site seems to have been lifted from Vowel\u2019s defunct site.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a customer testimony: \u201cAs a remote-first company, Vortax has laid the foundation for how we collaborate and learn from each other across time zones. Without it, we\u2019d be screwed!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of course, this is actually a quote about Vowel.<\/p>\n<p>Vortax&#8217;s blog page is called &#8220;And Sometimes Why&#8221;. That only works as a pun if, say, your company&#8217;s name is Vowel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/vortax.io\/blog\"><i>Vortax<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/9ZAia\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Vowel also had all the Gartner badges that Vortax lays claim to.<\/p>\n<h3>The Twitter contact<\/h3>\n<p>The Twitter account which contacted our guy is mostly retweets with six original tweets over three days in December, all NFT pictures. The account also has a distinctive bio.<\/p>\n<p>This account\u2019s name, bio and avatar are copied from <i>another<\/i> crypto-bro-looking account with no original tweets at all. That account copied its bio from a <i>third<\/i> crypto-bro account \u2014 though this one has a months-long history as a perfectly normal crypto degen.<\/p>\n<p>Our guy contacted the venture capital company that the first Twitter account claimed to work for. The CEO verified that the initial contact was lying.<\/p>\n<h3>The scam<\/h3>\n<p>These scammers have been active for a few months. There\u2019s a couple of crypto guys calling out Vortax on Reddit r\/cryptoscams. One said they were \u201cpart of a Japanese project seeking help for translation\u201d; another said they were doing a crypto podcast. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/CryptoScams\/comments\/1axvwjg\/vortaxspace_new_scam_site\/\"><i>Reddit<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/CryptoScams\/comments\/19du8a0\/scam_vortaxapp_or_vortaxspace_interview_that\/\"><i>Reddit<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>In both cases, the contact asked them to do the call over Vortax.<\/p>\n<p>Game developer Alireza Jamali analysed the scam on LinkedIn. They approached Jamali with a recruitment scam. He got as far as downloading the software and examining it: [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/aeza90_job-interview-scams-where-the-scam-is-the-activity-7175461641868746752-vh98\"><i>LinkedIn<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/dw5WB\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Scam starts when you try to enter the room ID, a setup file is downloaded in order to install the video meeting app, but the problem is, the setup file is THE VIRUS. fortunately vortax.io is just a crypto miner run by a Russian guy and if you install it, no damage is done if you clean remove any trace in registry and startup, it could be a ransomware which would be devastating for the victims.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Jamali also details how to clean up after the Vortax malware, if you were unlucky enough to be deceived.<\/p>\n<p>Vortax seems to have targeted a lot of crypto guys. I would expect the software to look for crypto wallets it can drain.<\/p>\n<p>It only didn\u2019t work when we tried it out because the download links weren\u2019t working.<\/p>\n<h3>What to do?<\/h3>\n<p>This is a horribly plausible attack for me personally \u2014 because I always try to say yes to media requests, and quite often they have a favourite app they want you to use.<\/p>\n<p>So if someone contacts you out of the blue and wants you to download software &#8230; pretend you\u2019re writing a scam report on it. Check it out thoroughly.<\/p>\n<p>Or ask to use something normal and not their weird software. Live AI voice translation is absolutely not at product stage as yet.<\/p>\n<p>This sort of scam is also highly templatable. There\u2019s a bit of human involvement, but quite a lot of this appears press-button. There are likely any number of scams along these lines. No doubt Vortax will set up again tomorrow under another name.<\/p>\n<p>This is like a trip back to the golden age of ICO scams! Including the bit where none of this works properly and if you kick the tyres, the whole thing falls apart like a clown car.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Update:<\/strong> the group currently seems to have pivoted to variations on the name &#8220;Vorion&#8221;. Keep me updated on future changes!<\/p>\n<br><br><div align=\"center\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\"><img src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/become_a_patron_button.svg\" alt=\"Become a Patron!\" title=\"Become a Patron!\" width=217 height=51><\/a><br><p style=\"align:center;\" class=\"patreon-badge\"><i>Your subscriptions keep this site going. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\">Sign up today!<\/a><\/i><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The AI scam cycle is at the stage where there\u2019s money in creating companies that don&#8217;t exist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3515,3753,3818,3751,3752],"class_list":["post-26514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-ai","tag-alireza-jamali","tag-vorion","tag-vortax","tag-vowel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/vortax.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26514"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26778,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26514\/revisions\/26778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}