Evidence verified October 29, 2026

A seven-year rotation of CoinGate clones — all dead, and that’s the problem

This is a public evidence page from Scam Detective’s published research. The real CoinGate — the MiCA-licensed CASP and Lithuanian payment institution behind coingate.com — has been impersonated by a documented rotation of clones since 2019: a fake exchange, an FCA-warned forex platform, fake “frozen wallet” emails, and a wallet-connect phishing page. Every domain below is dead today. That is the finding, not the consolation: these crews register a fresh clone faster than reports on the old one can land, so the risk is the rotation itself — not any single domain a takedown could kill. Every finding is backed by the independent sources listed further down the page.

5
Lookalike domains found
High
Overall risk level
5
Independent corroborating sources
October 29, 2026
Case verified
The evidence

Confirmed lookalike domains

High riskClone exchange — country-code lookalike on .uk

coingate.uk

Registration profileA 2019-era clone — predates every other domain in this set, the earliest documented leg of the rotation
First seen2019, with documented victim losses
Evidence
  • A fake exchange on the UK country-code TLD — coingate.uk reads as the brand’s official UK presence, but the real CoinGate is a Lithuanian payment institution operating at coingate.com and nowhere else.
  • Documented victim losses date to its 2019 run — this is not a recent nuisance name; the brand has been a clone target for seven years.
  • Now dead, like every later domain in the rotation — replaced, not retired.
High riskFake forex-trading platform — suffixed lookalike

coingateforextrade.com

Registration profileClone registered for the rotation’s 2022 leg — no multi-year history, no brand authorization
First seenOctober 2022, in the UK FCA’s unauthorised-firm warning
Evidence
  • Formally warned about by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority as an unauthorised firm (October 2022) — a regulator’s public notice, not just a scanner opinion.
  • The “forextrade” suffix is the construction tell: the real CoinGate is a crypto payment processor, not a forex broker — the clone invents a business line the brand doesn’t even operate.
  • Now dead — the rotation moved on to new names after the warning landed.
High riskFake support domain — “frozen wallet” email phishing

coingate.help

Registration profileClone on the .help TLD — a support-flavored extension registered to impersonate CoinGate’s customer channel
First seen2023, in fake “frozen wallet” email campaigns
Evidence
  • Used to send fake “frozen wallet” emails in 2023 — phishing that impersonated CoinGate support and steered recipients to “unfreeze” their funds.
  • The .help extension reads as an official support channel; the real CoinGate’s support runs through coingate.com, never from a lookalike domain.
  • Now dead — the email infrastructure was disposable, which is exactly why the domain was registered on a support-flavored TLD and then dropped.
High riskWallet-connect phishing clone — hyphenated “app” lookalike

app-coingate.com

Registration profileRegistered March 3, 2026 — a fresh clone spun up for the rotation’s 2026 leg
First seen2026; scored 0/100 by Gridinsoft, since dropped
Evidence
  • A wallet-connect phishing page — the highest-stakes clone type in this set: its purpose was to prompt a wallet connection and drain what the visitor connected.
  • Independently scored 0/100 by Gridinsoft — the lowest possible rating band.
  • Registered March 3, 2026 and already dropped by verification — months from registration to dead, faster than most reports on it could accumulate.
  • The hyphenated “app-” construction mimics an official app deployment; CoinGate’s real product lives at coingate.com and its official app listings.
High riskFake trading platform — suffixed “pro” lookalike

coingatepro.com

Registration profileClone registered for the rotation’s 2025 leg, also mirrored at coingate.pro — disposable duplicate names on interchangeable TLDs
First seen2025; DNS-dead by verification
Evidence
  • A fake “CoinGate Pro” trading platform — the “pro” suffix imitates an institutional product tier the real company never offered under that name.
  • Publicly listed on independent scam trackers, with its own “recovery script” pages chasing its victims — the mark of an operation that took real money.
  • DNS-dead by verification — but its victims’ losses did not die with the domain, and the same crew’s next name was already registered.
The pattern

Red flags in this clone rotation

  1. 01Rotation, not one-offs — five documented clones across seven years (2019–2026), each replaced as it burned. “The domain is down” is not “the threat is gone”; for this brand it has never once been gone.
  2. 02Country-code and suffixed constructions — coingate.uk, coingatepro.com, coingateforextrade.com, app-coingate.com, coingate.help. The real CoinGate operates at coingate.com; every variation on that name is a clone by construction.
  3. 03Regulator-grade confirmation — the UK FCA formally listed coingateforextrade.com as an unauthorised firm (October 2022). When a regulator has already warned about one clone, assume the family behind it is larger than the warning.
  4. 04Fake-support channels — coingate.help sent “frozen wallet” emails in 2023. A real institution’s support never emails you from a lookalike domain or asks you to “unfreeze” funds.
  5. 05Wallet-connect phishing — app-coingate.com (registered March 3, 2026, Gridinsoft 0/100) existed to drain wallets through a fake connection prompt. Never connect a wallet to a site reached through email or search; type the official domain yourself.
  6. 06Reports land slower than registrations — the rotation documented here outpaced every warning mechanism that touched it. That asymmetry is the case for continuous lookalike monitoring rather than one-off takedowns.
Independent confirmation

Who corroborates this evidence

CoinGate’s own published scam guide

The company itself publishes guidance on CoinGate-impersonating scams — first-party confirmation that the brand knows it is a recurring clone target and warns its customers directly.

UK Financial Conduct Authority

The FCA’s public warning listed coingateforextrade.com as an unauthorised firm (October 2022) — a financial regulator’s formal notice, the strongest independent corroboration in this set.

PhishDestroy

PhishDestroy documented the fake “frozen wallet” emails sent from the coingate.help support-lookalike in 2023 — independent confirmation of the phishing leg of the rotation.

Trustpilot victim reports

Victim reports on Trustpilot corroborate the clone campaigns’ real-world impact on people who believed they were dealing with CoinGate.

German legal press

Coverage in the German legal press documented the clone cases — independent journalism corroborating the rotation and its victims.

Full investigative write-up: Fake Bitcoin Wallet App Scam: How Scammers Steal Your Crypto Through Fake Apps.

See exactly what you get

The audit, opened up

Findings · Risk ratings · Takedown template

Below is an abbreviated sample from a real audit format — the same report structure every $29 audit follows. The brand and domains shown are an illustrative example; your audit researches the company name and official domain you enter and documents what it finds the same way.

Sample — from a real audit format
Report date: March 14
Brand impersonation audit
Harborline Supply Co.
Official domain: harborlinesupply.com · 6 findings (5 shown) · 2 High · 2 Medium · 1 Low
Findings — lookalike domains
DomainTypeRiskEvidence
harborline-supply.comFake storefrontHighFull copy of the official site — same logo placement, layout, and product photography. Checkout collects card details before account creation. Registered 9 days ago behind a privacy proxy.
harborl1nesupply.comTyposquatHighDigit-for-letter swap ("1" for "l"). Redirect chain lands on a replica storefront with a cloned login form. SSL certificate issued 4 days after registration.
harborlinesupply-outlet.shopFake outletMediumPoses as a discount outlet channel. No affiliation disclosed anywhere on the site; the footer copies Harborline's legal text verbatim.
getharborlinesupply.comLookalikeMediumRoutes brand-name search traffic to a survey-with-prize flow before offering any products. Registered in the same bulk batch as the fake storefront above.
harborlinesupply.shopLookalikeLowBrand-name domain, currently parked with no active checkout. Rated Low and flagged for a re-check in 30 days in case it activates.

+ 1 more finding in the full report, documented the same way. Report summary: active impersonation campaign — act on the two High-risk domains first.

Takedown-request template — excerpt
Subject: Takedown request — <lookalike-domain> To the Abuse Team at <registrar / hosting provider>, I am writing on behalf of Harborline Supply Co., owner of the trademark HARBORLINE SUPPLY and the official website harborlinesupply.com. The domain <lookalike-domain>, registered through your service on <registration date>, impersonates our brand to deceive our customers: 1. Copies our logo, site layout, and product photography 2. Operates a checkout that collects visitors' card details 3. Discloses no affiliation with our company We request the immediate suspension of <lookalike-domain> …

The full template ships pre-filled with your brand, your official domain, and each finding's evidence — one per high-risk domain, ready to send to its registrar or host.

Your $29 audit follows this exact format for your company — every lookalike, typosquat, and copycat store found, each with its evidence and risk rating, plus the takedown template. Delivered instantly after checkout.

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