CoinPlex and the Psychology of Click-Button Scams
On August 22, 2025, at 11:47 P.M., Tomasz checks his CoinPlex app one last time. The balance shows seventeen thousand zloty – a handsome result from three months of religiously clicking the “quantization” button four times a day. He smiles, thinking about the down payment for his son’s apartment. The next morning, the app won’t respond. The website has vanished. The Telegram group has been deleted. Overnight, his dreams evaporated along with his life savings.
The story of CoinPlex is the tale of one of the most sophisticated frauds in the history of Poland’s capital markets – an operation that, in August, 2025, stripped more than twenty thousand Poles of a combined sum estimated at no less than five million dollars. This was not, however, an ordinary financial pyramid but a refined laboratory of manipulation psychology that combined a Ponzi scheme with elements of cyberespionage, creating a new standard of financial crime in the digital age.
What CoinPlex Was: An App Pretending to Be an Investment
CoinPlex presented itself as an American investment firm headquartered in Denver, offering “quantum trading” of cryptocurrencies through a simple mobile app. According to official materials, the platform used advanced artificial intelligence algorithms to automatically trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, generating profits for ordinary users without requiring any knowledge of financial markets.
The mechanism seemed straightforward: a user deposited a minimum of fifty dollars in stablecoins (USDT or USDC), then clicked a “quantization” button in the app three to four times daily. Each click supposedly triggered sophisticated trading algorithms that brought daily profits of 1.8 to 1.9 per cent on invested capital. In practice, this meant that an investment of a thousand zloty would generate about eighteen zloty daily, theoretically growing to more than six hundred and seventy thousand zloty after a year.
The platform also offered a tier system from G1 to G6, where higher levels unlocked greater daily investment limits, higher profits, and access to exclusive V.I.P. groups. The top “ambassadors” allegedly received spectacular material prizes: B.M.W.s, Rolex watches, iPhones – all documented with photos and videos on social media.
In reality, CoinPlex was a classic financial-pyramid scheme operating according to Charles Ponzi’s 1920 model: deposits from new investors financed payouts to earlier participants, creating the illusion of profitable investment activity. The button clicks triggered no transactions or algorithms – they were pure theater of financial activity, designed so that users would feel like active participants in the investment process.
The Mathematics of the Impossible: Why Sixty-Seven Thousand Per Cent Annual Returns Are Bullshit
CoinPlex’s promises were not merely unrealistic – they were mathematically impossible in any economic activity. Daily profits of 1.8 to 1.9 per cent with reinvestment mean an annual return of 67,188 per cent. For comparison: the world’s most famous investor, Warren Buffett, averaged twenty per cent annually over five decades, while the legendary Renaissance Technologies fund – considered the most profitable in history – generated an average of thirty-five per cent annually.
If CoinPlex’s promises were true, an investment of a thousand zloty would yield 671,880 zloty after one year, and more than four hundred and fifty million zloty after two years. At such returns, every user would become a millionaire within eighteen months, and the platform would need to control more money than Poland’s G.D.P. after three years of operation. This reveals the absurdity of the mathematical foundations of the entire enterprise.
All Ponzi schemes have a built-in expiration date resulting from exponential mathematics. When the number of new investors stops growing at a rate sufficient to finance payouts to earlier participants, the system inevitably collapses. CoinPlex could function only as long as the inflow of new funds exceeded the cost of payouts – and at the promised growth rate, that was a matter of months at most.
The Psychology of Addiction: How the App Reprogrammed Brains
Apps like CoinPlex resemble a fusion of a popular mobile game with a professional investment platform. It’s not a unique app but part of a global ecosystem of similar programs, based on the same “engine” of I.T. solutions and customized for different target groups and geographical areas.
After logging in, users see an elegant interface with charts reminiscent of those from Bloomberg Terminal. The main screen displays the current “portfolio balance” in large, golden digits, animated charts with “A.I. market analysis,” and a ticker with prices of various cryptocurrencies.
The central element is a large, pulsing “QUANTIZATION” button that changes colors from green through orange to gold. Next to it, a countdown timer to the next possible click: “6:23:17 until next trading session.” The bottom of the screen features colorful progress bars labeled “Today’s goal: 73%” and an activity ranking with other users’ avatars.
Such apps are saturated with visual elements that build a sense of professionalism and sophistication: miniature candlestick charts, technical indicators with names like “RSI Quantum,” “MACD Neural,” animated counters with particle effects. Everything is designed to look like an advanced financial tool, when in reality it was a simple button-clicking game.
Many apps’ menus offer sections like “Trading Academy,” “Analysis Center,” “V.I.P. Signals” – all filled with pseudoscientific jargon about quantum algorithms and artificial intelligence. Users have the impression they’re using the latest financial technologies, while each section contains only generic texts copied from public sources.
Mechanisms of Neuropsychological Manipulation
Behind such seemingly professional interfaces lies a sophisticated laboratory of neuropsychology using the latest discoveries to create user addiction. Each button click triggers a precisely planned neurochemical cascade. When a user sees a push notification like “Tomasz, your algorithms are ready!”, his brain automatically starts releasing dopamine in anticipation of reward. This anticipation of pleasure was stronger than the actual pleasure of receiving the reward – a mechanism that underlies all addictions.
The act of clicking is typically designed as a multisensory experience of pleasure. The button responds to touch with subtle animations: pulsing light, spreading waves of color, gentle phone vibrations (haptic effects). The clicking sound is carefully selected – a short, melodic tone reminiscent of a safe opening or coins clinking.
The loading screen lasts exactly three to seven seconds – long enough to build tension but not enough to irritate the user. Spinning wheels with messages like “Analyzing global markets…,” “Optimizing quantum algorithms…,” or “Synchronizing with blockchain network…” create the sense that something extraordinarily important and complicated is happening. In reality, the app simply waits a random amount of time before displaying a predetermined balance increase.
Typically, apps are designed so that basic balance growth is reinforced by a system of variable rewards: sometimes unexpected bonuses appear (“+0.3% activity bonus!”), sometimes special promotions (“Happy hour: double profits!”), sometimes information about advancing to a higher level (“Congratulations! You’ve reached level G3!”). This unpredictability exploits a variable ratio reinforcement schedule – a mechanism psychologists consider the most addictive, identical to that underlying slot machines and social-media apps.
Daily clicking rituals create powerful habit loops described by Charles Duhigg in “The Power of Habit.” The cue (a push notification about the possibility of clicking) triggers an automatic routine (logging in and clicking), which brings a reward (balance increase and visual effects). After a few weeks, the process becomes automatic – users click without conscious thought, just as they check Instagram or TikTok, driven only by the neurological impulse to get another “hit” of dopamine.
Gamification as a Weapon of Mass Psychological Destruction
CoinPlex’s true advantage lay in its masterful use of gamification techniques – employing elements known from computer games to motivate specific behaviors in non-entertainment contexts. The app transformed rational adults into addicted players who stopped thinking about money as real assets and began treating it like “experience points” in a game.
The Level System and the Obsession with Progress
The structure of levels from G1 to G6 exploited the fundamental human need for development and social dominance. Each promotion unlocked new functionalities: higher daily clicking limits, access to exclusive V.I.P. groups, larger daily “farms,” special weekend bonuses. Progress bars showing the path to the next level exploited the psychology of “unfinished tasks” – people experience strong discomfort when a task is started but not completed.
Streaks and the Psychology of Continuity
The most insidious element of apps like CoinPlex is the “streak” system – counters of consecutive days of activity. When users log in and click the button each day, the app counts consecutive days: “Day 1,” “Day 15,” “Day 43.” This seemingly innocent counter becomes a powerful tool of psychological manipulation.
The mechanism exploits loss aversion – a fundamental principle of behavioral psychology discovered by Daniel Kahneman, according to which people feel the pain of loss more acutely than the pleasure of equivalent gain. Losing a seventy-three-day streak is psychologically more painful than the satisfaction of seventy-three days of “successful investment.” The longer the streak, the greater the pain of its loss and the stronger the compulsion to continue.
The system works identically to gym memberships – people will pay monthly fees for years rather than admit to themselves that they’ve stopped working out. The difference is that in CoinPlex’s case, the “membership” renews daily, and the psychological cost of cancelling grows with each day.
The streak is an entirely fictional construct – counting consecutive days has no impact on supposed “trading algorithms” or profits. It’s pure psychological manipulation designed so that users feel imprisoned by their own previous choices, forced to continue acting solely to avoid “wasting” work already done.
Rankings and Social Comparisons
Live user rankings create a powerful mechanism of social comparison, exploiting the fundamental human need for competition and social status. Such apps show not only the user’s position but also specific amounts “earned” by leaders, with captions like “Marek_Warsaw earned 2,347 USDT today.” This information is false or manipulated, but creates a sense of real competition.
Dan Ariely’s research on social motivation showed that people work more intensively when they see others achieving better results in identical tasks. In CoinPlex’s case, this meant larger deposits, more time spent in the app, more intensive recruitment of friends – all to move higher in a ranking that existed solely to extract more money from users.
Fear of Missing Out as a Sales Strategy
CoinPlex and similar systems create artificial time pressure through limited promotions and “exclusive opportunities.” Messages like “Last 48 hours of deposit doubling promotion!” or “Only 100 spots in the V.I.P. program!” exploit the scarcity heuristic – a mental shortcut by which rare things are automatically perceived as valuable.
Countdown timers in apps function like visual stress tests. Counting down to the end of a promotion can even create physiological signs of stress: accelerated pulse, increased focus, need for immediate action. Robert Cialdini, in “Influence,” describes this mechanism as one of six fundamental principles of social influence.
The Endowed Progress Effect and Achievement System
The achievement system built into scammer platforms exploits the endowed progress effect – a psychological tendency to complete tasks when we feel we’ve already partially accomplished them. New users receive a “starter pack” with partially filled progress bars, giving them the illusion that they’ve already achieved something and it’s worth continuing.
Badges and trophies for various activities (first deposit, first week of activity, first recruitment) create a sense of accomplishment for actions that were actually just further steps toward greater financial losses. Each “achievement” is celebrated with visual effects, sounds, push notifications, which reinforces the sense of success and motivates further action.
The Ritualization of Addiction: How Clicking Became Habit
Daily button clicking is designed to become an automatic habit integrated into users’ daily routines. Apps send push notifications at strategic moments of the day – morning (7:00 A.M.), noon (12:00 P.M.), afternoon (4:00 P.M.), and evening (8:00 P.M.) – synchronizing with natural rhythms of human activity.
Such a system perfects every element of the habit loop: cue → routine → reward. Cues are precisely time-synchronized and personalized (“Tomasz, your algorithms are waiting!”). The routine is simple but satisfying (a few clicks with visual effects). The reward is immediate and measurable (balance increase by a specific amount).
After a few weeks, users begin experiencing phantom notifications – imagined notifications from the app, similar to phantom vibrations known from smartphone addiction research. The brain starts automatically checking the app at specific hours, even when notifications don’t arrive. This shows how deeply scammer app mechanisms integrate with users’ neurological patterns.
Building the Tribe: How Telegram Became a Tool of Manipulation
Telegram groups in similar online frauds exploit tribal psychology – the fundamental human need to belong to a group and show loyalty to members of one’s “tribe.” In CoinPlex’s case, the main Polish group with twenty thousand members was managed like a professional online community, with daily challenges, group goals, celebrations of members’ successes.
Moderators of such groups employ sophisticated community management: they welcome new members, celebrate promotions to higher levels, organize “group challenges” like “double deposit week.” Users begin identifying as a “family,” sharing personal stories, congratulating each other on profits. This emotional bond with the group makes leaving the platform mean not only giving up profits but also exclusion from a community that has become an important part of daily life.
Telegram Scam Factories: The Industrialization of Manipulation
Telegram has become a global infrastructure for investment fraud, offering ideal conditions for cybercriminals: anonymity, the ability to create large groups, and advanced bots that automate the scamming process. Fraudulent investment groups use a sophisticated organizational structure where “mentors,” “professors,” or “crypto advisers” conduct seemingly educational sessions with thousands of participants.
A typical scenario begins with recruitment through social-media ads or text messages. Potential victims receive messages about “exclusive investment opportunities” or invitations to WhatsApp or Telegram groups. In these groups, cybercriminals present carefully fabricated evidence of profits: screenshots from investment platforms showing unrealistic returns, photos of luxury cars and houses, video testimonials from “investors”.
Manufacturing False Social Proof
The key mechanism is manufacturing false social proof on an industrial scale. A significant portion of group participants are automated bots programmed to simulate enthusiasm and share success stories. Real users, surrounded by a fictional community of “investors,” lose skepticism and begin perceiving fraudulent offers as real earning opportunities.
Bots operate according to scripts prepared by psychologists: “I just withdrew €5,000 from my account! Thanks to the team for professional support!,” “My wife was initially skeptical, but now she invests herself 😊”, “As a retiree, I can finally afford to travel thanks to these profits!” These comments are precisely matched to the group’s demographics and the emotions they’re meant to evoke in real participants.
Targeting Soldiers
CoinPlex’s Chinese operators demonstrated deep understanding of Polish cultural and social specificity. Instead of mass, chaotic marketing, they applied precisely targeted campaigns exploiting specific trust groups in Polish society.
Internet traffic analysis showed that ninety-four per cent of CoinPlex users came from Poland, with a significant portion being military personnel. This means that Chinese criminal groups behind the platform gained access to geolocation, personal, and behavioral data of thousands of Polish soldiers – information of unquestionable intelligence value.
What distinguished CoinPlex from many other cryptocurrency scams was the combination of financial theft with an espionage operation on an unprecedented scale. The app contained malware called “SparkKitty,” which systematically stole users’ personal data, particularly photos containing cryptocurrency wallet recovery phrases.
SparkKitty used advanced optical character recognition (O.C.R.) technology based on Google ML Kit to automatically identify seed phrases in photographs stored in phone galleries. Seed phrases are twelve to twenty-four words that allow recovery of access to a cryptocurrency wallet – whoever has them can steal all funds. Many users photographed their seed phrases “for security,” not knowing that CoinPlex was automatically scanning and stealing them.
Unlike earlier forms of malware that stole all photos for manual analysis, SparkKitty selectively identified and transmitted only those images containing cryptocurrency-related texts. AES-256 encryption allowed dynamic updating of attack targets and operational methods from cybercriminals’ servers.
The combination of financial fraud with a cyberespionage operation sets a precedent in the field of hybrid threats. CoinPlex not only robbed victims financially but simultaneously infiltrated their devices, stealing data that could be used in future operations against Polish national security.
Systemic Lessons: What Went Wrong
The CoinPlex story reveals fundamental weaknesses in Poland’s system of protecting investors from cryptocurrency fraud. The lack of proactive monitoring and warning mechanisms means that similar scams will be able to operate for months before being detected and blocked.
Particularly disturbing is the infiltration of the military environment by an app containing espionage malware. This means that Chinese criminal groups gained access to geolocation, personal, and behavioral data of thousands of Polish soldiers. This information could be used in future intelligence operations or sold to foreign special services.
CoinPlex shows that traditional financial education – warnings against “quick money” and “checking licenses” – is insufficient against sophisticated psychological manipulation mechanisms. Education is needed about how the human brain functions, how addictions form, how to recognize behavioral manipulation.
Crucial is understanding that susceptibility to such scams doesn’t result from stupidity or naivety but from predictable patterns of brain function that criminals study and exploit with scientific precision. Mental defense mechanisms that protect us from psychological pain, in the case of financial fraud, work against us, blinding us to obvious evidence of manipulation.
The Future of Fraud: What Awaits Us
CoinPlex represents a new category of hybrid threats that combines classic financial fraud with intelligence operations and advanced psychological manipulation. This operation’s success in the Polish market indicates that future scams will likely be even more sophisticated.
The development of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and other technologies will give cybercriminals new tools for creating even stronger addictive and manipulative mechanisms. Real-time deepfakes, personalized A.I. scenarios, immersive V.R. environments – all of this could be used to build even more convincing scams.
Telegram bots enabling “scam-as-a-service” democratize cybercrime, lowering technical barriers for potential fraudsters. In the future, anyone could launch their own version of CoinPlex, using ready-made templates, bots, and psychological manipulation scenarios.
Summary: Mathematics, Psychology, and Human Nature
The CoinPlex story is a tale of the perfect use of human nature against humans. The scammers combined mathematical impossibility (67,000 per cent annual return) with psychological manipulation (gamification of addiction) and social engineering (building local trust), creating a money-stealing machine operating with surgical precision.
The most important lesson is understanding that modern scams are not primitive “quick money for the naive” but advanced behavioral psychology laboratories using the latest scientific discoveries.
Only conscious understanding of our own psychological vulnerabilities – from loss aversion through the need to belong to a group to addiction mechanisms – can protect us from increasingly sophisticated forms of digital exploitation. CoinPlex has disappeared, but its methods have been documented, analyzed, and are probably already being used in new scams that may prove even more sophisticated.
Mathematics doesn’t lie – no legal investment can offer 1.8 per cent daily on a permanent basis. But human psychology is predictable, and when someone offers us everything we desire (quick money, group belonging, the feeling of being a smart investor), our critical thinking ability dramatically declines. This is the lesson we all must remember if we want to survive in the age of digital manipulation.
Founder and Managing Partner of Skarbiec Law Firm, recognized by Dziennik Gazeta Prawna as one of the best tax advisory firms in Poland (2023, 2024). Legal advisor with 19 years of experience, serving Forbes-listed entrepreneurs and innovative start-ups. One of the most frequently quoted experts on commercial and tax law in the Polish media, regularly publishing in Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Wyborcza, and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. Author of the publication “AI Decoding Satoshi Nakamoto. Artificial Intelligence on the Trail of Bitcoin’s Creator” and co-author of the award-winning book “Bezpieczeństwo współczesnej firmy” (Security of a Modern Company). LinkedIn profile: 18 500 followers, 4 million views per year. Awards: 4-time winner of the European Medal, Golden Statuette of the Polish Business Leader, title of “International Tax Planning Law Firm of the Year in Poland.” He specializes in strategic legal consulting, tax planning, and crisis management for business.
