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I don't know if you noticed this kind of scam previously but I noticed it first time. So wondered to share with community.

Please take a look on below picture.

https://i.imgur.com/3v1f2PW.jpg

Discovered it from PundiX group. You may noticed that scammer using user name on Bio and he doesn't use any username. This is really confusing matter. If you are not familiar with this kind of scam then you might fall into this trap. Scammer might ask your personal details, private keys or may offer any bonuses. So be careful if you receive any greedy offer on telegram. Please match username with main group and verify it.


Most of newbies wouldn't think much and probably they might fall. So please share it with your friends.

Well telegram is the heaven for scammers.
You can change username
You can delete conversations from both side

I thing these two are too annoying feature in telegram and people abuse it a lot. The technique you have seen is not new at all. I have seen them before several times.

It used to be skype with similar exploits. Scammers will use whatever they can. None of these chat services are supposed to be used for trust or identity verification. People are just dumb. People are getting scammed over the phone (I mean voice calls over the phone) still.

i think that first of all, thank you for warning!
and second .. it is extremely hard to be clear of any kind of scum in today's digital world
so I guess the best behaviour would be just not send any money  / crypto to anyone you know for sure.
otherwise - no warrantees

If you are not careful there may be problems from now on changes username by vowel words,  The worst service is that one person can delete the connection after two if he wants one. as opposed to there are some benefits that are not available anywhere else but are not used well.

I remember this old school technique of allegedly looting money from people who are finding on how to invest in an ICO. This thing was at it's peak in 2017-18 when generally scammers used to do this and message every new joiner in the ICO group. Best advice for newbies is that remember you are no whale that any admin or even a customer care representative would bother to ask you personally about your investment. Moreover even if he does make sure you never send money to any address available on Telegram. Always check the official website of crowdfunding for the Deposit Address and then search on Etherscan that it is a smart contract or not. If it's not a smart contract address then it's a scam. Just a little bit of attentiveness can protect you from scam.

True they should change that immediately before more people will get hurt.
Responsible website should care about its users, same as software developers.
Often they think if user will made mistake, its on their part but is it? Often, but not always.

I have noticed previously that scammers changes user name like admin [ of xxx group] But really I did not notice this that create username in the bio section.  May be I saw but did not caught accurately. But now I am serious about it.

I agree with you. These things really help a lot of scammers. Everybody should aware before making any deal with others via telegram.

This is not exactly new... as scammers use that tactics for some time,
and I saw it with various fake supports sending me fake help messages.

That is why I can't stand that bloody Telegram  :P   but lot of people use it

Best medicine - Block & Report and don't trust anyone in telegram

Surely it's very confusing to a new eye. If i hjadn't seen this post, I would have realized it so quickly thou ofcourse i can't send any random stranger very sensitive info like private keys or login details.

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They biggest problem is that there is no clear moderation on telegram like it is on this forum or some sub Reddit. At-least in this forum a newbie can be able to see the trust ratings of a scammer and know right away not to deal with them.

Impersonators are also always nuked and this helps alot.

Recently, I noticed that some telegram users have the word "Scam" at the end of the display name. I think this should be taken care of and reported more so that new people stay away.

The problem is that Telegram accounts easily create multiple on one computer. Scammers use fake images from reputable celebrities to take advantage of fraudulent news. We can only warn users of these situations.

This is very common if you are in a ICO telegram group, scammers just check who joined and PM almost as soon as possible. I have seen it many times before. They claim to be the admin.

This is good technique to catch users. Just one thing you have to understand. If any random users send you a private message, leave and delete it. Because random users not going to send good things for you.

Most of the target people of this kind of scam are those in some telegram ICO groups or those people who are making message on the public channel conversation, like if they are asking about ICO details.
This is not only on such ICO groups but also in some existing projects or even different crypto exchanges.

new?
Hey man
It's not new
But very popular, sure
agree with you

Just be careful

The thing is if you are going to use telegram channel, you need to be aware of this, that you can change your username and you can use people's profile, reading through the various telegram channel of every bounty that I've participated in so many have been scammed by scammers pretending to be the admin of the bounty or the ICO, that is why on every group channel there is a warning that none of the team will pm you.

Not new to me though. This is basic. Almost all of the low-life people/scammers uses this trick. In every Telegram channel. There will always be imposters pretending to be an admin or someone from the company. Always be vigilant and observant. Don’t answer those people who pm’s you first and always check the admin tag beside the admin’s name on the channel members tab.

Scammer can do thing like what OP stated but they can't add Admin label besided display name, so the true admin is have Admin label next on their display name, users should aware and double check the true admin. see the image below

https://i.postimg.cc/0rd1r5Sm/tele-admin.jpg (https://postimg.cc/0rd1r5Sm)

I've busted many accounts like that before. They found another way to trick because the other method was already well known (using an almost similar username).


Admin label doesn't appear on private messages and that is why using the space for bio works for some scammers.

Scam attempts on Telegram become a very big problem and I like to compare it to Discord in the 2017 year.

I don't know how many of you remember this, but Discord was the mainly used chat app for ICO's, bounty and other cryptocurrencies focused groups from the beginning of Bitcointalk. Scammers took advantage of the Discord complicated features and deployed many scammy bots. It was so much of them, that they were everywhere, even Discord announced at this time (2017 year), that the problem is so big, that they just can't guarantee the safety and everybody has to be very careful when using it. Finally, Telegram started taking the place of Discord because it was a lot more simple to use and secure.

Still, scammers keep constantly looking for new ways to improve their technics in scamming people. Lately, I become multiple messages on Telegram from many different people, with multiple requests and 99% of them are scam attempts. I see that even average people are trying to use the anonymity of Telegram and attempt to scam others in various ways. From simply "friend scam" to sophisticated once, which involves hours of talking, fake documents and websites. The approach is the same they message you and start to talk and try to become your "friends" but always finally they will introduce the offer which is one of a kind  ;).

yeap
and better when admins do not speak with users in PM

thats the best option to know, that someone try to scam you

This is an old trick by scammers but maybe new to you, There's only one thing to remember to avoid this scammer, Remember Admin never DM first unless he mentions it on the group that he will DM you. If someone DM you. No matter what he/she say for sure he's a scammer/thief. You can verify by going to the group find the admin with admin tag send a message if no history for sure the person that pm you first is a scammer.

Well you can not expect there are well. That's not a community like forums but a chatting apps. Will you expect whatsapp team to moderate users chat or discord team to moderate discord channels? No.

In telegram they can just disable this few features and then everything will be fine. We will see less scams.

Experienced the same trick tho, It happens a few months back. Scammers really trying to persuade and take advantage of the people who will be baited by this trick. Scammer keeps finding new method in order to take advantage of us and the way we can about this is to get extra careful on our surroundings and informing others about the method that the scammers do in order for others to be aware of the possibilities that they might be scammed.

i think the best way to not getting scam like this is follow the rules that every project put in the pinned message on telegram
i always see it pinned message like this "Admin Never PM you First"
so if the admin pm you first than it's a scam because they always told us that we need to chat the admin first not otherwise

I have experienced this one a scammer contacted me on telegram. Interrogating about my personal details about my eth address and also if I’m planning to invest in their project. Good thing I visit their legit telegram and I've found out it’s a fake admin whose swindling many investors. It is very important not to trust easily in a telegram group where you belong since scammer is rampant these days.

Yes, I often met such people and I just hate them. Immediately block scammer.

Telegram is the best platform for fraud. lately a lot of fraud in the telegram. especially airdrops, many of which duplicate chat groups or channels for projects, and make telegram airdrop bots. I do not know the reason why he did that, and did not bear the grub chat results from up to 7k users. like the RCN airdrop example below, I tried to tell other users, as a result I was blocked.

official grub chat telegram                fake grub chat                  fake bot telegram
https://i.imgur.com/YcLdr2zl.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/QgimdAal.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/hkZFDVll.png

I have been using telegram and I am added in lot of crypto coins official and discussions groups. From my experience, Whenever I try to ask any question in the telegram group, many times people starting PM me as they think I am new here and they can scam me  :D
I never pay attention to their messages or offers I would say.

I'm not surprised that such scam is coming from telegram app,  thanks for the information @ OP I believe that this will be an eye opener to lots of people,  The rate at which people are being scam on telegram is quite alarming , lots of scammers claiming to be CEO of a particular project do chat up,  someone has to be extra careful not to fall victim

Newbies should take this warning seriously. When looking at the profile there's not much different in name but the scammer added username in the bio section as stated by op and username have it's own section. People should not get involved to someone you don't know or someone giving you an offer.

Actually, I am not too surprised to see your article. Fraud on Telegram takes place every day, with an increasing number. Victims are easily confused and fall into the trap of deceivers. Always remember that the Admin will never send you the first message.

I know that, what I mentioned to ensure that he is clone or not. What I do when get PMs from people I don't know and use display name like ICOs project is check in the telegram group and see the list of names to see if it a real account or clone.

That could help but if someone is unaware of the difference between the space for username and bio, it wouldn't help much unless that user would personally ask (not just check the list of name) in the group chat. Scammers would copy exactly the display name and the username (but put in in their bio instead).

Well, this is the first time I see it, and on first glance, it fooled me when I have quite the experience with this sort of things, thanks for sharing that I can imagine this fooling a lot of inexperienced folks.

Scammer will not be able to deceive you:
if you do not send him your money,
if you do not follow the links that he dumps to you,
if you do not answer those who write to you first in telegram chats.

Without your help, scammers cannot steal anything from you. No need to blame the platform and its functionality, which, in my opinion, is excellent. You need to teach yourself attentiveness and rationalism.

Vigilance is the most powerful sword we can have against scammers and fakes for they've been around and is spreading their crimes, acting like the viruses and bacterias on your doorknobs waiting for you to touch it and stick to your hands and travel whenever your hands will land on. Taking a look at everything and being extra careful and scrutinizing isn't a big thing and won't cost u anything so do as it is for your own safety and protection.

Yes, this is a good initiative by OP informing who are new to these industries and can be easily deceived by these scammer/bad actors.
I want to add something. Some scammers are too aggressive they even create a copy of the telegram group and make themselves look like a legit admin. So we need to check the telegram group also if it is official you can verify it by going on their website usually found on the bottom of the page, social media links.

This is October 2019 and this is not a new technique. Seen it since last year. Hundreds of attempts like these. Unless you are expecting someone to message you. The moment you hit high user number groups like exchange supports or new ICO, you are bound to get these. Just be extra vigilant. Good share.

I haven't seen that before to be honest. They can't use the same username as the admin so they copy the admins username and post it in the bio section.
But still there are a few things you should always remember with Telegram.

1. Admins will never ask for your private information like passwords, private keys etc - Scammers Will.
2. Admins will never PM you first and especially not when you join a group - Scammers Will.
3. Admins will try to solve your problem in the group chat and not via PM messaging unless you request it - Scammers will PM you without writing in the group.

You are right. The three things you mentioned are a must to remember. 
1. Admin has never asked for sensitive information including PK wallets, if that happens then there are indications that we must beware of it.
2. Admin is never the first pm, very rarely encountered admin do it. They only answered PM when we asked for his help.
3. Responding to problems with groups is the admin's job, through PM only done when we request it. It is true.
Realizing something that is rarely done by the admin is an attempt to prevent fraud from happening to us. Always be aware.

Another thing. I have said this before but it doesn't hurt to repeat it.
Those scammers contacting you over Telegram are not members of the group you just joined. They are just watching the group but they haven't joined it. The reason why they are not members in the groups is because they use similar usernames, same photos and details of the group admins. They would easily be identified and banned from the groups if they joined them.

Telegram gives you an option to check what groups you have in common with the person contacting you. It is only logical that if an actual admin of the group you joined PMs you that you are both part of the same group but when a scammer does it he will most probably not be a member of the same group.

Right, I will always make sure that if I want to talk to PM then it's really with the admin. In telegrams we can see that someone who is communicating with us is someone who is in a group with us. When not finding the person is not a member of the group then it's the right time to leave him.
This is one example, if I want to communicate with the admin then I will make sure he is a member of the same group.
https://i.imgur.com/bjwBXwq.jpg

wow this seems concerning...using telegram for couple weeks now and it looks great. Does anybody know any similar scams there? Thank you

This is really concerning and trust me if we leave it here then this will take a toll on users as well as business based out of telegram and it's high time there needs to be a solution as they can literally hack accounts and get access to our personal data. I wish they could use their cunning brain to do something good for community rather than using it for extortion.

This could be prevented when you disable automatic downloading of media in the setting of your Telegram account. That way if you want to view a picture or a video you would have to manually click on it, otherwise it wont get downloaded to your device.

I don't remember by heart how to turn it off but is should be somewhere at Settings > Media Download and an option to untick automatic media download.

Damn dude, thanks!!

I wont say that this is some sort of new way of scamming thru telegram but you actually made a good spot out for this one.

The only problem here is that, majority doesnt even know how to scan out which one is legit if they havent check it for the first time.
On first glance they would thought that those are real usernames without reading up that Bio tagged.If you are careless enough then you would surely fall on.

Lastly,there would be no someone will ask out account credentials even if they are the true owner or team and with that alone its already a red flag.

Damn, that's pretty clever, it got me fooled for a bit when i was trying to see the difference looking for the spelling errors or letter swapping.
And i thought i was a veteran combatting those scammers.
I always double check everything coming from "admins" and most of them are just lurkers because they don't even have to be in the same channel to see who is in there and pm them.
Mostly i just block every pm on default because they are almost every time a scam attempt.

I have experienced this, but I don't think this is a new scam technique because it has happened in several cases since a long time ago. Most of them deceive the members by manipulating the letter l ("L" lowercase) with the letter I ("i" uppercase). Hopefully you can be careful with this kind of thing, make sure that person has an "admin" label on the group in question. Never trust the person who immediately sent the message first. You must verify it first through the group involved in it.

This is not a new technique, but it is good enough to be repeated and remembered. More often reminded people will be saved. Scamer will continue to look for ways to get victims, and they will not stop doing it. Hopefully we do not become victims in the future. Many PM is come when I'm in crypto, if I don't recognize it and there's nothing important then I will ignore it and report it as spam.

I faced few scammers in telegram.In monarch token telegram group I posted for a help how to swap MTP to MT.after few minutes I received a personal message.scammer telling me that he is the admin of Monarch token official telegram group.Scammer and admin name was same and he asked me for seed after that I saw his username there was the difference.So people should aware and before trade everyone should check the username.

Always check the profile if that scammer or not or much better just go to on the TG group and click the admin there not just by searching on the search box. On OP, the image has shown I noticed that the scammer clone a user name of admin on "bio" and not using username.
Always be careful on dealing online, we don't know the real person behind on the Telegram Group. Much better to avoid scam, always doubled check and always look the real one and immediate report to the admin.

Have fallen for this scam before and the scammer even had fake website with fake account, similar to the original ICO website. It should be everyone's responsibility to notify the group if such scammer is noticed especially for longtime investors. We need new investors and falling for a scam at first investment can be disappointing. Telegram looks to vulnerable with scammers and am not too comfortable with it.

Sometimes i think that they have so much time that they keep on monitoring the telegram channels and look for such newbies whom they can easily trap. This telegram scam technique is now very old one and if people still get victim to it, this means they do not pay attention to whats going around them and do not have sufficient know how of how they can prevent their presence online.

Thank you very much for this post. These scammers run rampant in uncountable crypto teelegram groups. I almost fell a victim to it as well. They have scammed numerous people continually.
It's pertinent that people get enlightened about these scammers to protect them . Thanks once again

https://i.ibb.co/480xL4X/image.png

When someone tries to scam me via telegram. He offered to sell his BWN token. Unfortunately, because I needed a lot of money, so I offered to sell some of the most promising sh*ttoken to him. Lol; D

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This is reported by pandukelana2712 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1304130) when we talk on Telegram.

https://i.ibb.co/dBNMsmb/image.png

Moved my comment from this similar thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5194496.0