Bitcoin Forum

The creation of this post was inspired by today's story.

Be careful, Telegram is full of scammers waiting for easy crypto.

• Never give your private keys, mnemonic phrases, wallet files, etc.

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• Always check the Telegram ID of the person you are talking to

Are you exchanging currency, or maybe you need some help from a representative of some service - always check them by different ways to avoid a scammer. Usually scammers have multiple accounts. From one account they just watch the chat, and as soon as a new user is added, they offer their "help" immediately in direct messages from second account, pretending to be a representative of some service. (see screenshots at the end of the post).

Do not confuse the Telegram ID with the account name or username. Account name and username it's very easy to change them, as well as the profile image. Telegram ID -- is a special numerical code, which is assigned to everyone during registration. This identifier is necessary for the system to correctly save data and link it to a specific user.

Use @userinfobot (https://t.me/userinfobot) to find out the Telegram ID:

• To find out your Telegram ID, send any message to the bot: @userinfobot (https://t.me/userinfobot)
• To find out the Telegram ID of any user, forward any of his messages to the bot: @userinfobot (https://t.me/userinfobot)

A couple of months ago, Telegram made it possible to hide even Telegram ID (it surprised me very much). To people who hide their Telegram ID you should be especially vigilant.

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The story that happened to me today.

I joined to the Trust Wallet chat room and almost immediately I got a message from a "support representative". The scammer asked me if I needed any help. I decided to play with him and said that I couldn't restore my wallet. See the screenshots:



This one is from @userinfobot (https://t.me/userinfobot), you can that this scammer doesn't have the username only account name, but he's so dumb to hide his Telegram ID and now you know his ID. He can hide it, but as I said you don't have to trust people with hidden Telegram ID at all (at least in Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian crypto-communities people with hidden Telegram IDs are not trusted):

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If you have a proof that some scammer tried to scam you, don't let them get away! Write to @notoscam (https://t.me/notoscam) and provide them all the evidences. Then the scammer's account(s) will be marked with a "SCAM" sign, and the profile biography will be: ⚠️ Warning: Many users reported this account as a scam. Please be careful, especially if it asks you for money.

One of the many scammers who pretended to be me  :):

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Remember, all scammers are really dumb, they looking only for inexperienced and easy targets.
Informed means armed.

Take care of yourself.

It is really important to be knowledgeable enough not to do foolish things especially in telegram app where most people do their scam attempt in there. I did use telegram many times before but now I seldomly open telegram app when I want to chat someone and read news.

Many scammers are like this and lots of people got victimized. Ive almost fell for a trick like this especially the change in the username is almost hidden because he is using big i (I) which is almost identical to small letter L (l).

Hello good to know that we can report here in this telegram bot  @notoscam (http://@notoscam) but when I tried it has no response. How does the format of reporting on this?

https://i.postimg.cc/TY38s1HB/20191111-090019.jpg (https://postimg.cc/mhJ6zL4S)


Also, we should make sure the one we reporting is correct and not the real identity of the user the scammer impersonating cause this will be trouble for the legit user.

Thanks for this post OP. Great reminder for those who are using Telegram app that much.

Make a joke with scammer, here is my experience when got message from scammer "asking 10 btc, give him 11 btc, using fake transaction history, with inspect element edit"

https://i.ibb.co/17CDZR4/image.png

It is a little off-topic, but the OP reminds me that I made my guide on simple steps to investigate and discover scammers on Discord.

It is nearly the same as on Telegram, where users can easily change their username, but each user has a unique user ID.
Be careful on Discord, because on Discord, there are two types of user ID. To get unique user IDs, people have to choose on for the Developer Mode.
Scammers can not self-change their unique user ID (unique, so it means unchangeable).
Discord & scammers. Check user IDs and user colors of strangers send you PMs (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5171908.0)
https://i.imgur.com/kiAFSjZ.png

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Telegram:

In my opinion, one of the best preventive ways to avoid scammers' contacts is manually change your settings:
in the Privacy and Security
Phone number:
Who can see my phone number: choose Nobody
Who can find me by my number: choose Nobody

Groups: Group invite settings: who can add me to groups and channel: Choose My contacts

I called those settings as preventive ways because of they will early prevent us from scammers'  invitation and contacts.

You nailed your topic in my collection: Collection of comprehensive guides on identify and avoid scam projects (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5125435.0)

Is telegram ID hidden by default now? I was checking in my settings but I don't even know where to find it.

Edit:
Or do you mean to say it is still possible to hide telegram ID from @userinfobot?

I guess there is no need to have a chat with that account. Just state why a user is a scammer and whoever is in charge with the account can read your report. Do not forget to include the telegram ID which you can get from the @userinfobot

Because it's not a bot! What makes you think it's a bot? Where did you see the "bot" sign?

"Scam? Hello?"... Really?  :-\
You're dealing with real people.

If you've ever had any communication with any service support, you should also communicate with them the same (with facts/proofs/screenshots/screencasts/etc.)

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It used to be like this before. Like now, I don't know, because I have one account since 2016.




Yes, see the screenshot. In you want to hide your Telegram ID, set it to "Nobody".

Another way to prevent scams in the crypto industry, Thanks for sharing these tips mate. Every user who asks for our phrase keywords is someone suspicious. when they ask us about it, we better stay out of them not to engage in some transactions with them. as for me, I was nearly a victim of this kind of scam. Because after telling about my problem in some exchanges on their shoutbox, someone has mailed me and offered his service. he has some good intro though, so if you are not aware of what he is going to do, you might fall for it. Thankfully, I have some knowledge about them, so I didn't take his bait at all.

I get it now. Forwarding messages to @infobot to identify someone's ID became useless when telegram added that privacy feature. That sucks.

It was added last March btw.