Bitcoin Forum

This topic is a heads-up for all Telegram users which may want to contact me there: it is not possible.

Somebody told me recently that there is (was?) someone on Telegram with my username. When that person asked the impersonator, he said he is GazetaBitcoin. However, later he changed his name. I don't know if the impersonator appeared again, as I do not use Telegram.

As a consequence, do not trust anybody from Telegram saying it's me. It is not me, as I do not use Telegram. Those interested to reach me can do it here, on this forum.

I don't know exactly what username the imposter used -- if it was Gazeta Bitcoin, GazetaBitcoin, just Gazeta etc. but this is less important. The important part is to (1) never look for me on Telegram; (2) never trust anybody from Telegram saying it's me; (3) if anyone is interested to contact me, I am available on the forum.

If there would be a (very less likely) situation where I would need to talk to someone outside the forum, I would instruct that person myself (on the forum) about the ways of communicating outside the forum. Therefore don't let yourself scammed by any imposter saying it's me on Telegram.

That's all :)

It is an easy way to impersonate reputed users of the forum and also impersonate reputed sites. I am not reputed but I noticed several users like my username. Also, I have heard several people become victims via telegram.
https://img001.prntscr.com/file/img001/go0fFLX3Rz2naRtmDcZ53A.png (https://t.me/shasan324)

A similar user of you I don't know whether this user is a scammer or not:
https://img001.prntscr.com/file/img001/hOIHiJIBQMyHilcLVyiyxg.png (https://t.me/GazetaBitcoin)

As I am sure this thread will sooner or later be buried by other accusation threads unless you bumped it up every day --which I am quite sure you will not-- may I interest you with the proposal of filling your "other contact info" field with "telegram: I am not on telegram"?

A  smart human being will at least try to check your forum profile before engaging to whatever the impostor asked, and there it is, the info is readily available for them right on your profile page.

I tested it on mine, it allows you to write such message:

https://i.ibb.co/vBrN2dk/don-t-contact-me-on-TG.jpg (https://imgbb.com/)

I am not surprised to see such impersonators to be honest. You have a very recognizable name, plus the merit cycler avatar. Not to mention that you are positively rated member and trusted in the community. You also escrow funds for other people. All those are reasons why someone would try to take advantage of the situation to steal and profit.

Members of Bitcointalk knows the basic and continue to advise members to send a message here in Bitcointalk and ask for confirmation, if members fail to do this and failed to the wrong guy to message then the blame is on them.
Telegram is only safe when you know how to use it, with so many scams and scam groups you are in danger if you do not know the basic of protecting yourself on Telegram, this goes for all social media sites, they are not on Telegram only but on platforms where there are investors.

It's easy to change usernames in telegram and create new accounts in few minutes.
That is the reason why I always keep in my forum profile location written information that I don't use Telegram, and everyone can see this.
If anyone ever contacts forum members using my username you can be sure it's a scam attempt.

True, even Royse777 was impersonated recently, 🛑 Be aware from these type of scammer 🚫 ☠ (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5448698.0). So this might be trend for this scammers to look for reputable member here, try to impersonate them and then pull a scam.

Everyone should be very careful on who they dealing with as they might be the next victim.

Much better if they can ping their account here in the forum just to verify that they are talking to the real Gazeta or Royse777.

That's the normal and safe way of handling it anyway. Everything else is just risky and asking for trouble. If someone PMs you on Telegram and says, it's me Pmalek, and offers you some kind of deal, a conscious individual would want to confirm who that person is. If we have never spoken before and there is no history of previous conversations between the two of us, the standard routine would be for you to PM me here and ask if that is me who make contact with you over Telegram. If not, you only have yourself to blame for whatever happens because you believed an impersonator.   

Hahah trust me Gazeta I found cases like this like every day and I do no why there is people who still fall with this kind of scam method.

Remember the Bitcoin mantra guys "Dont Trust, Verify"  ;D Usually bounty manager get replicated and sometimes the impersonator using tricky username example my name is dansus021 and the scammer can use the username dansusO21 at glance is same but it is not. Just beware guys

It's fake because the Cult of the Foxhole forbids its members from displaying its avatar flair on plebeian "Web 2.0" social media sites. Heretics are witch-hunted severely. ;)

It's very different on Telegram compared to social media sites, on social media platforms you can check the content of the profile and if possible the contacts but on Telegram everything is on the configuration of usernames, no way to confirm if the guy is an impersonator but prior contact here on Bitcointalk or other platforms and confirming the username.

This is why Telegram is the favorite hub of scammers and hackers so many users and people are easily deceived.

Anything can be done for scammers on Telegram by impersonating a well-known account on the bitcointalk forum, no wonder this happens a lot but I would love for the owner to clarify that he doesn't use Telegram for any business so we know that GazetaBitcoin is only on the forum > PM for business whatever.

Recently I was also quite happy with GazetaBitcoin because it has done a good transaction, only on the forum can verify its authenticity while outside the forum you can say it's a scam unless GazetaBitcoin himself directs it.

But much safer are the forums for making transactions.

That's why messaging the particular forum user via forum's personal message first to confirm its existence and to avoid futur problem. Although, this kind of scam attempt is so famous that it is used even on some influencer on different social media sites to impersonate someone, so be careful especially to newbies.

Lol, that's the impersonator.

And, if I remember well, this was the new name of the impersonator. This is what I remember from the person which told me about a GazetaBitcoin on Telegram and which also told me the impersonator changed his name. Freddy Almeida!

Even if I would not remember what that person told me, simply the fact that Freddy uses same username and avatar says enough about his intentions =)))

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Sup holydarkness  :D

Thanks for the suggestion! I just added this info to my profile.

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That' a smart move, dkbit98! I just did the same.

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Loooooooooooool! O0

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I am glad that you felt pleased for doing business with me  :D

Thank you for clarifying you do not use Telegram but scammers are trying their best to use your name. Did you ever consider you could be getting famous beyond the boundaries of the this forum therefore scammers are trying impersonate you?  ;D

I did it with the hope that nobody would fall for a scam made by someone using my name...


Sincerely I never thought about that. Yet when I found out that Merit Cycling Club is discussed on CryptoTalk or there is even a coin named Merit Circle (https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/merit-circle/) nothing amazes me anymore =)))

I did not know the cryptotalk forum at all, your topic, Gazeta, will have had the merit to make me know it  ;)

Maybe I'll find some interesting stuff there but already here I'll never have the time to read everything ...

Merit Circle  ;D

When I get some free time I will go and search the CryptoTalk forum. To be honest, by now it should have faded in to obscurity by now but if it is still active I will take a look to see what is happening there. The last I checked it was full of spammers and not much else.

You'll certainly lose your time. That forum is full of spam and it's also Yobit's forum. They even had a signature campaign on BitcoinTalk a while ago and this determined a huge scandal because they wanted to fill BitcoinTalk with spam too. I advise you to not use that forum.

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I can't find that post -- I think The Bearded Baby mentioned that Foxpup's Merit Cycling Club was discussed on CryptoTalk, but I just can't find his post :) It was funny, anyway.