Verified Scam Report Against Elcapo.io - Updated

[Trêvoid]

I received a message from a user on SimpleX claiming that Elcapo scammed him. I contacted Elcapo about this and they replied. I will add it here.

Its not real.
Please feel free to post.

I’m posting this and creating this thread as a warning to other users, as scams seem to be becoming increasingly common. I’ve noticed that many newly created swap services have appeared this month. Additionally, I was holding Elcapo’s security deposit. They requested a refund, and it was refunded approximately one week ago.


Allegedly scammed user message to me on SimpleX:

"Order not found" scam network active again: elcapo.io. KYC.rip is going public with the case as we speak. 0.57 BTC loss: https://kyc.rip/swap?id=16B53402BD0BA087C06855ED9CD3293E
Please put a warning on their listing

BTC deposit address bc1qw0zr6z996td5pg39wa20a5vryhavhq4fcgr79n 0.57 BTC

Before marking elcapo as a scam, I would like to ask other users for more proof and details. Has anyone else experienced the same issue, or does anyone have any information?

I created this thread to gather more comments. It could be a sophisticated FUD campaign or a legitimate scam report. I asked the user who claimed to have been scammed by Elcapo to come here and post the details of their case, but he refused, which raised to me suspicions.

https://bitmixlist.org/neverkyc-exchanges/el-capo.html
https://monerica.com/site/el-capo
https://xmrlist.com/site/el-capo

I need more information from the directory owners who marked them as a scam.

Source: https://kycnone.com/threads/alleged-scam-investigation-ongoing-regarding-elcapo-io.63/

Best regards,
— Trêvoid


Update:
I’m marking Elcapo as a scam and urging everyone not to use or interact with this service. They still haven’t provided any comment or response, and they appear to be looking for more victims.

https://x.com/xmr_club/status/2098055625737638055
https://kycnone.com/threads/new-service-el-capo-instant-monero-first-no-kyc-tor-swap.40/unread

[Trêvoid]

Update: I received a reply from the Elcapo team.

Sharing our respond to kyc.rip team:

Hi,

We've investigated thoroughly. This order was never created by us, and the deposit address is not ours.

We searched our records on four independent identifiers. None of them exist on our side:

1. Order ID 16B53402BD0BA087C06855ED9CD3293E not found
2. Deposit address bc1qw0zr6z996td5pg39wa20a5vryhavhq4fcgr79n not found on any order we have ever issued
Recipient 3. 87BQyWXKvC7LL3uCkLUxL5XnFsit… not found
3. Amount 0.57395628 BTC no order with this amount exists

We also found no POST /api/partner/orders request in our access logs.

We can state this definitively: every deposit address we issue is tied to an order in our records, and bc1qw0zr6z9… appears on none of them.


The Bitcoin transactions are real. The address received 0.57395329 BTC and the funds have since been spent. So a customer did pay, and someone did sweep it. It simply wasn't us on either end.


Your service is multi-provider, so the most likely explanation is an attribution issue — a response from one provider recorded against another. Specifically:

Which upstream actually served that request? If your router selected a different provider and the result was logged under our name, that explains everything.
What hostname did the request reach? Please confirm the exact URL, scheme and host your integration called. A stale config or DNS entry pointing elsewhere would produce exactly this.
Which API key was used? We can trace any key we issued and tell you what it did and when.
Does that response actually match ours? Compare it field by field against a known-good order from us — the differences should be immediately visible.
The raw request and response with a UTC timestamp, headers included.
Where we stand

We're not brushing this off. If a customer is out 0.57 BTC, that matters, and we'll help trace it however we can — give us an API key or a timestamp and we'll check it against our logs.

But we can only account for what reached us, and this did not. Please confirm which provider actually handled the request, because whoever controls that address is the one who can answer for the funds.

[Zwei]

so Elcapo is blaming it on kyc.rip? hmm...

xmr.club claims there was another victim whos out 60 ETH, but they couldn't verify it: https://x.com/xmr_club/status/2097525580002693415

i think you should go ahead and mark them as a scam. the risk is too high to wait for other victims to show up.
if the scam is proven to be false, the flag could be reverted, unlike scammed coins.

I asked the user who claimed to have been scammed by Elcapo to come here and post the details of their case, but he refused, which raised to me suspicions.

i don't understand why he would claim to be scammed and would share things privately, but won't do it publicly. very odd.
but Elcapo withdrawing their security deposit also looks suspicious. do you know if they withdrew other security deposits it from other escrows?

this would have been simple to figure out if there was a letter of guarantee.

[Trêvoid]

so Elcapo is blaming it on kyc.rip? hmm...

xmr.club claims there was another victim whos out 60 ETH, but they couldn't verify it: https://x.com/xmr_club/status/2097525580002693415

i think you should go ahead and mark them as a scam. the risk is too high to wait for other victims to show up.
if the scam is proven to be false, the flag could be reverted, unlike scammed coins.

I asked the user who claimed to have been scammed by Elcapo to come here and post the details of their case, but he refused, which raised to me suspicions.

i don't understand why he would claim to be scammed and would share things privately, but won't do it publicly. very odd.
but Elcapo withdrawing their security deposit also looks suspicious. do you know if they withdrew other security deposits it from other escrows?

this would have been simple to figure out if there was a letter of guarantee.

Thanks for the reply, Zwei.

Elcapo reply about 0.57 BTC order.

We had no such order in our db.

i don't understand why he would claim to be scammed and would share things privately, but won't do it publicly. very odd.

Yes, this user is only messaging services through private chats and does not share anything publicly. I’m also not sure whether Elcapo has any other security deposits. At the beginning, I asked the allegedly scammed user about a letter of guarantee, but he said he didn’t have one.

[Trêvoid]

Update: I did my best to tell the El Capo team to come here and post comments, but they just replied randomly and still not coming here. I am becoming suspicious.

Feel free to share your opinion on this situation.
We have no such order and never has.
The only assumption that kyc.rip does it on their side.
There’s no clear evidence or anything what can possibly prove our guilt on it.

do you know if they withdrew other security deposits it from other escrows?

I also asked about this, and they said no. It was only me.

[Trêvoid]

Update: I’m marking Elcapo as a scam and urging everyone not to use or interact with this service. They still haven’t provided any comment or response, and they appear to be looking for more victims.

[Arhad]

As I understand it, Trêvoid is a highly respected forum member, and his word carries significant weight here. As a newcomer, I may not have the right to an opinion, but I believe Trêvoid's decision is not entirely fair.

In this discussion, Elcapo is being labeled as a scammer (which may very well be true), and the fact that they withdrew their security deposit is indeed suspicious. However, KYC.Rip is barely discussed at all, even though they also have the technical ability to embezzle funds. They don't even need to access Elcapo's API - they could manipulate exchange amounts on their end, display their own wallet or redirect users to Elcapo's API. This is how a selective scam works.

In this situation, both Elcapo and KYC.Rip could have embezzled the victim's funds, and now they're just blaming each other. We don't have the technical means to determine who is telling the truth. As Zwei said, both of them should be marked as scammers.

Services that want to operate long-term and value their reputation should carefully choose their partners to avoid such situations.

[marto25]

We can confirm — El Capo is marked as SCAM on null_route as well.

Score downgraded to 5.0. Visit button disabled. On-chain evidence reviewed and consistent with what's documented here.

Full report: NULL_ROUTE · Scam Alert — El Capo 09/2026

null_route / cetoc.org

[Arhad]

We can confirm — El Capo is marked as SCAM on null_route as well.

Score downgraded to 5.0. Visit button disabled. On-chain evidence reviewed and consistent with what's documented here.

Full report: NULL_ROUTE · Scam Alert — El Capo 09/2026

After reviewing the data you provided, it's clear that order 16B53402BD0BA087C06855ED9CD3293E was executed through the kyc_rip website, while the second order B29A7FF45D73546E72C86F7613423FCC was processed directly through the El Capo website (https://web.archive.org/web/20260911103724/https://elcapo.io/pages/order.html?id=B29A7FF45D73546E72C86F7613423FCC). This confirms that the destructive actions were indeed carried out on the El Capo side.

[JeromeTash]

As I understand it, Trêvoid is a highly respected forum member, and his word carries significant weight here. As a newcomer, I may not have the right to an opinion, but I believe Trêvoid's decision is not entirely fair.

So how do you explain xmr.club's findings? - https://xmr.club/exchanges/el-capo

I don't think he is being unfair. If a scam is identified. Then they should be labelled scammers as soon as possible. If KYC.rip are also later discovered to be scammers, then they will also get labelled.

[Arhad]

So how do you explain xmr.club's findings? - https://xmr.club/exchanges/el-capo

As you may have noticed, when I initially wrote about unfair, I was unaware of the second case. The discussion at that time revolved around a BTC exchange and there was no information about the ETH exchange, only a mention of it. However, after @marto25 message, everything became clear.

[Zwei]

As Zwei said, both of them should be marked as scammers.

you might have misunderstood what i said, i never said both should be marked as a scam. i was only talking about elcapo.

but regarding kyc.rip or other aggregators like them, i never liked using them. not only could you get scammed if they go bad, they really, imo, don't offer anything of significant value.
they are just an extra added layer (obv this doesn't include the ones that offer some guarantees).

I don't think he is being unfair. If a scam is identified. Then they should be labelled scammers as soon as possible. If KYC.rip are also later discovered to be scammers, then they will also get labelled.

i agree.

[marto25]

As Zwei said, both of them should be marked as scammers.

you might have misunderstood what i said, i never said both should be marked as a scam. i was only talking about elcapo.

but regarding kyc.rip or other aggregators like them, i never liked using them. not only could you get scammed if they go bad, they really, imo, don't offer anything of significant value.
they are just an extra added layer (obv this doesn't include the ones that offer some guarantees).

I don't think he is being unfair. If a scam is identified. Then they should be labelled scammers as soon as possible. If KYC.rip are also later discovered to be scammers, then they will also get labelled.

i agree.

I partially disagree here. Aggregators that back their service with a real guarantee — like Trocador or Zero Trace — do offer significant value beyond rate comparison. The Trocador Guarantee, for example, means that if an exchange fails to provide sufficient proof for blocking a transaction, Trocador compensates the user up to the insured amount. That's not "just an extra layer" — that's actual accountability that a direct swap doesn't give you.

The El Capo case is a good example: had the user gone through Trocador, there would have been a concrete dispute mechanism in place. The aggregator becomes the intermediary with leverage over the exchange — something the user alone doesn't have.

So the distinction matters: no-guarantee aggregators — agreed, limited value. Aggregators with enforceable guarantees — different story.

[Zwei]

I partially disagree here. Aggregators that back their service with a real guarantee — like Trocador or Zero Trace — do offer significant value beyond rate comparison. The Trocador Guarantee, for example, means that if an exchange fails to provide sufficient proof for blocking a transaction, Trocador compensates the user up to the insured amount. That's not "just an extra layer" — that's actual accountability that a direct swap doesn't give you.

that's what i said:

they are just an extra added layer (obv this doesn't include the ones that offer some guarantees).

but this is not the place to discuss this, so let's stay on topic and keep it at that.

[JeromeTash]

I partially disagree here. Aggregators that back their service with a real guarantee — like Trocador or Zero Trace — do offer significant value beyond rate comparison. The Trocador Guarantee, for example, means that if an exchange fails to provide sufficient proof for blocking a transaction, Trocador compensates the user up to the insured amount. That's not "just an extra layer" — that's actual accountability that a direct swap doesn't give you.

Scammers are beginning to use those "deposite guarantees" as a way to win trust and pull off an exit scam on a bigger amount of money. I would imagine what Elcapo deposited as guarantees across most of the aggregator platforms is a tiny fraction compared to what they have scammed so far

On Antikyc, imagine those scammers had the audacity to deposit only $500 as a guarantee. That was an immediate red flag.

[SamReomo]

Update: I’m marking Elcapo as a scam and urging everyone not to use or interact with this service. They still haven’t provided any comment or response, and they appear to be looking for more victims.

You've taken the right step, they scammed the user and that's why they should be marked as scammers. If they haven't done any kind of scam then they could reply here on this forum to show how transparent they are but they avoid replying here and at the same time they're trying to create more confusion. Even they took escrow amount back if I'm not wrong that shows they are only providing their services to loot their users and they can scam exit anytime so it's much better that users should stay away from such services.

[NotATether]

A user had sent me an email a few days ago alerting me about the presence of a scam report on XMR.club.

https://xmr.club/exchanges/el-capo

It was a short message, and I am not sure if it was mailed by the victim or not.

That's why I marked it as having an active scam report. Hopefully we get more details and/or clarification.

[Agbe]

Update: I did my best to tell the El Capo team to come here and post comments, but they just replied randomly and still not coming here. I am becoming suspicious.

You don't have to be suspicious about Elcapo.io and I am strongly believing that Elcapo.io is guilty on the crime because the user who message you, can't just  brought a transaction that doesn't exist for you to verify and from all the conversation you had with them. If there were not guilty, they would have come here to clear themselves. 0.57 BTC is not a small amount of money.

On the 7th of September 2026, bc1qw0zr6z996td5pg39wa20a5vryhavhq4fcgr79n received 0.57395628 btc. I think that should be the day the transaction was initiated. I made a search online and those information came up. You can also ask the user if he has any screenshot from  Elcapo.io exchange when the transaction was ongoing. This is very bad of Elcapo.io.

[Trêvoid]

The site is active and running, but the admin is unresponsive to messages on SimpleX, and the directories have been removed from the homepage. Please be careful, everyone.

[Zwei]

The site is active and running, but the admin is unresponsive to messages on SimpleX, and the directories have been removed from the homepage. Please be careful, everyone.

i don't know how some directories (3 weeks into elcapo.io scam) still have them listed or not flagged as if nothing happened. it's like they don't care.

https://notokyc.com/review/exchange/el-capo
https://directory.monerodice.pro/?https://elcapo.io
https://monero.forum/directory/el-capo
https://changerella.com/exchangers/elcapo
https://xmr.eco/

i would not trust any of the above listed sites for up-to-date info about anything.