Bitcoin Forum

Today I came across a few advertisements on Instagram (I am sure they would appear on Facebook too) that promise a program can find lost/forgotten cryptocurrency wallets. For me, that was a red flag! The inquisitive me was eager to know what exactly was being offered. I went ahead and followed as instructed and found a telegram bot that was designed to install Malware on my mobile device.

Why are hackers targeting mobile devices

https://i.imgur.com/ZKUuNS8.png  

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The crypto wallet market size would explode for sure and the same would happen for cryptocurrency exchange apps in the future. How can anyone ignore this fact. We are living in ,2023 where AI bots are controlling content generation & content development.
Considering those factors, imagine on what level scammers, spammer, hackers and a normal person would work on to fulfill the desired outcome.

Sharing the advertisement screenshot

https://i.imgur.com/GSMT48Tm.jpg

You can read the message displayed on this screenshot. If you were a newbie or someone struggling with trading or you might have lost your fiat due to the volatility of the market, scammed by someone, wallet got hacked then what will you do? You would surely click on the Learn more button.

That is what I did and went to the next screen which was a self-hosted website. Why was a redirected to a website hosted by the hacker? The reason is Facebook's advertising regulation.

Next screen, I found the hacker

https://i.imgur.com/ZoQM3O2m.jpg

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In the end it was telegram botl

https://i.imgur.com/yH9Gzjwl.jpg?1

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What do you think this Telegram bot will do? ;D

There are people who would fall for this scam. They'll just keep following the prompt from the program while some may come to their senses when the program requests for key phrase or some personal information while some others may just foolishly go on until they lose their coins. Back to a very important security tip,  before you click click on any links or download any files be sure that  you have verified the sender's identity to avoid sad stories.

Well, I also saw this kind of ad on Instagram and actually it's also on Facebook but I don't have a screenshot. But fraudulent ads on facebook seem a bit different. because of fraudulent advertisements on Facebook about offering accurate trading signals that promise multiple profits. I'm not trying to log in. but one of my friends was curious and tried it. and it turns out that the contents of the ad are linked to the channel on Telegram. and it's the channel about trading unknown tokens that show up as well as insane like thousands of percent. (pumps). so the channel owner invites people to buy tokens which he says will be pumped. and my friend tried it. but it turns out that the purchased token cannot be sold. i don't know what type of scam it is. but fortunately my friend only tried in a few dollars. because he was already suspicious. but he just wanted to confirm his suspicions. and then it tells me to avoid it. he mentioned the term of the token (non-sellable token) but I forgot what the term of the token is.

I always disregard any form of online advertising because the rate at which scammers are using ads to penetrate users' gadgets is very high. Clicking on those ads alone is very risky, even to the extent of joining their Telegram group. If that link is a phishing link, your device will no longer be safe. There is every possibility that you could already have been compromised before now, even without joining their proposed private Telegram channel.

My advice is that you should always disengage yourself from clicking on unknown links, especially when you are using a device that contains your crypto wallet information. It's really not safe.

In addition to the main content on the OP, they want to invite you into their private channel so that they can show you some convincing stuff that will make you believe that they could really help you restore your lost wallet or probably send the victim some links that will grant them complete access to the user's device if they don't have it already.

Well it says “click to join our private community”, I think the telegram bot takes you to a group chat/channel where they post testimonies of how good their software works and a tag to contact the admin for help. Anyone who is dumb enough to get to this stage of contacting admin is likely to get scammed.

Phishing scams are popular these days, it’s very risky to open links on the internet, your device may get compromised.

Most scams like this are targeting newbies. Since if you are experienced in this industry you'll be aware if someone message you like the OP's examples, then we could tell if it's legit or not by just looking at bot message or the contact itself. But newbies fall for this trick, as they don't know how this industry work they would just follow some simple rules that they think are actually helping. Let's be honest that in the internet, there's an automated messages that also from legitimate contacts so it would confuse a lot of newbies.

It’s odd such ads to see on facebook and telegram because they usually strict with the content but you will only watch that ads if your social media activity is more on investment since this ads use a smart targeting that available only for user that have an interest with that same topic.

Normal user that doesn’t have interest on that thing will not gonna see it. But of course, there’s always a gullible person that wants to try this kind of stuff online for a quick reach ambition. Maybe there’s few victim but that’s part of learning lesson.

I am still surprised why Meta does not make any effort to remove this type of content, even though they have enough capabilities, resources and technology to curb this fraud, if not reduce the fraud rate to zero.
The scammers are also lazy and their methods are easy to learn, however Meta leaves all the side to the users who waste their life effort believing these ads.


Increasing awareness will make these scammers pay Meta for free or revenue for their scam.

If someone offers to help with something that seems too good for many people to do, we should suspect them because it could be a scam. Especially if they tell us to use something that might look normal so we won't suspect it is a sign of fraud.

I think many cases have trapped many people in fraud cases without them being aware. By looking at the screenshot, we have to be suspicious and not continue it because it could end up being a scam that happened to us.

But I don't know. Maybe some beginners will be stuck with what people say, so they will do what they want. And finally, they will usually ask for money to be sent to their wallet and leave the victim without notification.

Social media never cared about what they are showing it to their audience when it comes to content as well as the advertisement, so someone can post a fake site link and pay some dollars to show it to the people so more you pay then more people will see it and myself reported such kind of ads on every platform but it keep showing until they took down after reach certain reports but by that time atleast few people might fell for the scam.

I haven't seen many cryptocurrency-related scam advertisements on Facebook, to be honest. I'm not sure if it's a coincidence, regulations that block them, or user reports, but I've seen an abundance of so-called entrepreneurs and Ponzi schemes. I can't comprehend that someone could fall for such a scam, while at the same time I'm wondering what this Telegram bot could possibly do to trick you into installing some unknown software—how and why on earth would someone do that? Even a cryptocurrency newbie wouldn't fall for that, unless they're also targeting naive people who have no relation to cryptocurrencies, tricking them into thinking that it's something that is possible.

Since Facebook and Instagram advertisements are unregulated, scammers are taking advantage of this opportunity to scam more people. As a newbie who knows nothing about bitcoin or cryptocurrency and is unaware that the transaction is irreversible, they will immediately follow the instruction and fall into the hands of this fraudster.

To me, even though the adverts on the website appear to be genuine, the fact that it quickly led me to Telegram to continue with a Telegram bot raises a red flag. Cases like this should be reported so that Instagram can remove similar adverts, although this may take longer than intended. They don't easily take down such with few reports, and I believe they are more concerned with money than with reports like these until they no longer have a choice.

Yes, right. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are exploited by criminals who try to deceive users by using promotional advertisements for cryptocurrency phishing. They may create false advertisements that display false promotions, display deceptive images or information, and encourage people to click on the advertisements.

When someone clicks on the ad, they can be taken to a phishing website that mimics the official site of a popular cryptocurrency exchange or digital wallet. Then, users are asked to enter their personal information, such as a username, password, or request a Private Key, which can be misused by criminals.

It is very important for us when using social media to check the legitimacy of the website before entering any personal information or carrying out any financial transactions on the internet. Always use official, trusted sites for transactions, and never click on suspicious or unknown ads. Do not be easily tempted by promotional offers that are too good to be true and always exercise caution when dealing with cryptocurrencies.

I agree with SatoPrincess, the link would probably bring you to a private channel where people would give fake feedback to convince you to use the "service"

thanks for sharing this by the way.

it is regulated, but they are just too damn lazy and greedy to actually do their job, scammers know this and that is why they take that opportunity to scam people. they would rather gain profit from those ads than to actually protect their platform users, and when you report a scam ad/s there would rarely be any action being done.

It was an obvious scheme to lure people into using these bots and install a malware to hack the unsuspecting victim.

This term is obviously a lie.  And one of the indicator that the advertiser is planning something evil.  Who would have profited in finding his own lost wallet?


Running this program if legit is like stealing other peoples money if the person's intention is to use it to recover other peoples cryptocurrency balance.  Even newbie will notice that this kind of advertisement is fake or is smelling a scam.  Only people who wanted an easy money and eaten by greed will succumb to this temptation.


It was rampant some years ago but because of the frequent case of scams, social media is now very sensitive about these incidents.  This crypto related scam advertisement are probably filtered or reported by users, reason why there are lesser advertisement like this on the social media today.  If there is an attempt like this scam attempt, it is quickly taken down or removed if some users reported it.


We must be very vigilant and don't believe everything that is advertised on social media because it is unregulated and scammers are rampant taking advantage of the lack of regulation of the social media platforms.

Because mobile devices are always with us because we must use them constantly, if they are successful in installing malware or anything else just to obtain your personal information and scam you that's their target.


Scammers have diminished the dignity of social media in the eyes of our parents, who see it as a haven for scammers rather than a platform that brings people from all over the world together.


If everyone can recognize such links, we will avoid them rather than clicking on them, but the scammers design the ad in such a way that we will believe it is too real. To avoid losing your coin, avoid clicking any link on any social media platform that you are unsure of.

A telegram bot? LMAO.

From the moment I set my eyes on the design of their ads I already knew that it was a scam, I don't know if anyone noticed but alot of scam this days have a pattern they use for their ANN and ads design it seems like they normally lookk for a cheap-ass graphics designer to do their job for them.


Exactly my thoughts, most times when you stay for a long time in the group chat even when you never had the intention of participating in their so called money making strategy but because of the fake realistics testimonies being provided by fake or socket-puppet accounts you might be tempted to put your money in it. I have seen and heard stories from people about how they fell for such a scam and that's why both newbies and veteran members should remain vigillant of this type of scam.

yes, one of the targets is newbies, but in a new era today where many expert people still got scammed by fake investments and stealing the asset by private keys, I really sure the scammer will choose it randomly, not only newbies but expert people who don't know or just knew the non-custodial wallet. So, We are known for a long time ago, facebook or any kind of social media is a nest of scammers, the scammer gathered there to just make plans and strategy how to steal what you have. So if we are in crypto, we must be careful, don't trust anyone even if yourself.

Such ads are everywhere online, not only on Facebook and Instagram, it's very common on Twitter too, even some on Telegram if you don't privatize your Telegram security settings.

@dzungmobile you are giving people the wrong advice by telling them to store huge amounts of crypto on a computer,  do you know that a computer is very vulnerable to viruses and malware?

Do not store big amounts of crypto on your computer unless you don't connect your computer to the internet and I doubt that you aren't browsing on the computer already, hardware wallet is the safer place for a huge amount of cryptocurrencies.

A android smartphone is perfect for hot wallet like trust wallets and electron wallet since you will be sending and receiving transactions from time to time but if you want to buy and lock your coins away with any worries you need a hardware wallet, not a Computer.

Whenever I see any ads on how to recover your lost wallet private key, your lost bitcoin or other things like that, I don’t even care to check it out because am sure all of them are scammers, at the end they will end up sending you link to click or they will start asking for your private informations. Thanks for sharing this information am sure it will be very useful for members in this forum. Scammers are just coming up with new tactics everyday just to scam people, I don’t trust all those ads I see on instagram, Facebook, twitter and YouTube, some of them are just scam ads. To me we shouldn’t just trust most of the ads we see on social media most especially when it’s related to cryptocurrency.

A user can store huge amounts of Bitcoin in their computer if it is a cold/air-gapped wallet, and you could even make it a multi-sig wallet for more security, and all of that is what @dzungmobile said, thus they are correct. If the wallet in the computer is a cold wallet, thus the device is air-gapped and it is not vulnerable to viruses/malwares.
Scammers are not inventing new tactics, these has been their modus operandi for quite a long time now; they just target avaricious and naive people.

Does meta actually care about their users wellbeing, aren't they the same company selling their customers data to the highest bidders on the market and constantly tapping our device to find information they can use to make their service better (as they said) meanwhile we know the real reason behind them tapping our devices. A company that doesn't care about their customers privacy shoudn't be trusted and that's why I don't believe any ads I see on Facebook or any of their sister platforms like Instagram etc.

Meta only care about their revenue which is why they'll accept anyhow ads without doing their due diligence, and then instead of them using that revenue generated to improve their services, they'll use the money in focusing on the wrong things like lobbing persecutors to try to takedown their competitors like tiktok by labelling them the bad guys meanwhile it's facebook (sorry meta) that has been found guilty on numerous occasions of security breaches. OP nice update, people should just avoid meta platforms ads entirely to stay safe.

People can easily fall on Social media scam, but I want you to understand anyone who knows what wallet is all about should not or will leave it wallet to be unsecured, before someone hack your wallet they most be a loophole or reviewed secret of the wallet, sometimes I don't believe on some Theory people give, because in this case of op, I might say that it's a framed work from the explanation, because  if I should go further to ask questions it might  result much arguments

This is the part that irritates me about Mark Zuckerberg and how he runs his blue app company. There's so much infringements on the privacy of those who patronize Facebook. Yet, Zuckerberg doesn't give a hoot. It's not even as if he gives back to his subscribers like what YouTube and others do for their subscribers.

I once watched a gruelling session Zuckerberg had with the American congress and the brilliant senator who questioned him twisted the questions to trap Zuckerberg on the subject of privacy concerning his whereabouts and places he had visited but the Facebook CEO dodged them and that sounded funny. He didn't want anyone knowing places he had visited or where he lodged but wouldn't hesitate to expose where others visit or have been to.

It's a total red flag because no one can do that but scammers that will try to fool those desperate folks that think it's very possible.

It's the same with Google that gives no care to the welfare of their users when these scams keeps on appearing on their platforms. We can only report them but it's up to them if they'll take actions or not. We've seen a lot of it in the past and they only have banned it and eventually reopened it to the public just for these scams to reappear again and they do nothing against them.

Many of us are aware that scammers are all over social medias, and they are constantly coming up with new ways to scam people, particularly in the cryptocurrency sector,but the problem we don't know their tactics. Many people who are unaware of some of these tactics fell prey to them.But the best way to avoid falling for scams is to not be overly desperate to make quick money in the cryptocurrency industry, and also to avoid clicking on any links unless you are sure of their legitimacy.

I've seen various cryptocurrency adverts on various social media platforms, but for security reasons I've never attempted to click on anyone because I know those guys are really smart. Op thank for sharing it here.

Do not be tempted easily on what you see on your screen, as sometimes curiosity kills the cat. If you can avoid some strange links that popped up in your computer, then it would be better so you can get rid of scam attempts that wish you connect in your own account and steal what they have to steal. Or blocked these strange links that are probably source of scams.

That is a very easy way to get people attracted to their site as it quickly redirecting to some fake testimony of users as a matter of fact every information displayed there aren't real even those fake testimonies are to easily lure newbies believing is legit.

I have came across several sites they said of donations and whatever,  though within myself I knew they are scammer but was going through the testimonies I was like how come they got all those good feedback even for me to go claiming the donation was like too boring for me how then this users easily claims it and testified. What I did was to follow them to end so I could witness what they are doing and at last I noticed it was scammed.

In essence scammers are very mean all this days to create new means of hacking your mobile device in other to have Auto control of the smartphone. I just feels so pitted for newbies because they always lack patient and wanting to make gain to whatever opportunity they sees to utilize it at all costs, telegram needs to be handled with care otherwise whatever business that connects you there has created an easy way of scamming you. Lastly always make sure to read everything displayed on your screen word to words to avoid clicking unwanted site that may swipe your phone.

If prefer to not any of the links, ads or whatever bot it is, if you didn't know what is that don't click because it might be a scam. Some scammer are totally evolving because they are paying ads or making a bot/site just to scam. Just ignore them and if you think that bot, ads and even site just report it. Have a nice day!

I always make sure i stay very far away from anything called ads most especially facebook. Most hackers deaign a very interesting ads to capture the mind of those they want to hack. You tried by clicking on the ads. I wont dare it.
These hackers usually gets to newbies because they dont really know much about these ads.
The easiest way to avoide being scamned is never to click on any link ads or join any telegram group or trusting anyone trying to help you recover your account.

Undoubtedly, some people will fall for this scam, and those who will fall for it are those who are ungrateful or unsatisfied with their current situation. However, as a educated or literate individual, you will realize that this is a scam when someone asks for your private keys or personal information. Scammers have gone to great lengths to devise various ways to fleece those who invest for their future needs.
This is to warn everyone in the forum because not only new members fall into scammers' traps, but even rank-up members have been involved in expect of greedy. Any links that are sent to you to follow the instructions and later ask for personal information are scams, even though there are some links that paid but they do not ask about private keys, and believe me if we try to stop being greedy nothing will happen to our investments.

But the reality is that there are still many people who are unfamiliar with crypto. or those beginners in the field of crypto are always victims of these fraudulent advertisements. Because I have browsed through these fraudulent advertisements several times. And it turns out that there are always many people who are tempted and get into it.

The solution is that there should be more education regarding this matter, especially for beginners who still don't have enough insight to distinguish between fraud and non-fraud. For people who enter this Forum, of course they will have insight to avoid fraud because many threads have been made related to education to avoid fraud. but for those people who didn't get into this forum and they got into crypto because of the hype. then usually such people are gullible.

We have similar thoughts, but these platforms are too large to know bad actors from the good one. That's why they've got the report button, it's left for users to report malicious pages so that it'll be taken down or never approved to launch ads on Facebook. Some of the scammers when their account get banned they'll buy Facebook ad account and launch a new ad, so before they get banned again, some greedy victims must have fallen for their deceits. It's never easy for facebook bots to trace Scammers on the platform without the help of facebook users. I'd have suggested that before any Ad gets approved on facebook that it undergoes some verification to confirm its legitimacy before it gets to the phones or gadgets of multiple users on Facebook. But, the number of users and the size of the platform may make it impossible to achieve and these platforms need the money too. It's left for users to stay careful with their money and not fall for deceits.

however, hackers and scammers will use new, better ways to commit fraud. Previously, what we saw more often were fake advertisements from well-known crypto platform sites. when opened it will ask us to connect our wallet. and there will always be a development of new ways they commit fraud.
always use a different device for trading activities or other crypto transactions with your social media activity. always double-check the domain or anyone contacting us to make an offer to us.
remain cautious.

You are right no matter how cheap a scam strategy might look like, people will still fall for it, most especially newbies that are just joining the crypto space for the first time. It’s a nice idea if any crypto scam discovered by any member of the forum is posted here, even if the pattern is very cheap, let’s try and educate ourself here, some people might not know they can’t recover their bitcoin after it has been lost, some will believe they can recover their lost crypto wallet, but after seeing this post now, they will learn and anybody that messaged them, they will know that the person is a scammer.

I have not not experience scam people both on the internet and physical life, but what comes to my mind why people are be scam is that they are looking for something to be achieve, because I know that theirs a way you can overcome scammer's, when you are being told of investment, you have all the decisions to take by rejecting their proposal, because I believe that what keeps people going close to scammer's investment is the thought of profit when they analysis the business investment, overlook proposal's and you will be free from scammers.

It is gonna ask you for access by different means  ;) and some of my dear fellows who don't know about access are gonna give it to the Bot and bot creator or maybe the bot itself is properly scripted gonna remove all the funds of the dear fellow. This is so common, but I like to have fun with such types of people and bots who try to convince me on giving access to the wallet.

About a year ago I was in the IDO group and there I posted a problem regarding my account suddenly in a few hours I got 10+ offers on recovering the account and fixing the issue I was aware of the intention so I tried to pretend like a noob and catch up with a few profiles had a good chat. They were so kind (You know what I mean  ;D) and they realized that there is no one more kind of them in the entire world but suddenly after a few good words they asked for access to the Key and account details I was like hmm this is how kind you are trying to eat all of my funds with my approval haha.

Most of the new ones and my dear fellows use Hot wallets on their Smartphones so I would like to suggest they follow a few tips it's gonna be helpful in securing your funds in wallets. I know maximum of these suggestions you already know but it can be a reminder,

► Never Store large amounts of Funds in the same wallet.
► Use Multiple Devices if Possible.
► Enable 2FA Wallet allows you.
► Use a strong PIN/Password.
► Keep Software (Wallet) up Upto Date
► Avoid clicking unknown Links
► Use VPN if Possible

It's good that @elevates has took this initiative to make this post about this scam.
I have myself seen this add more than 4 times on Instagram and so I assume many others would have seen it as well.
All the experienced crypto users would have easily found out that it's a scam but I guess the newbies would fall prey to this.
It's good to make them aware about this scam. Only if it were that easy to find crypto wallets with money in it then everyone would be doing it by now.
The possibility of finding such a wallet though is next to nothing.

You won't fall victim to scams as long as you make decisions based on your own experience rather than greed. Those who decide to make any investment without knowing anything, in fact, their heads are always spinning that the money invested in the crypto market can be doubled overnight. But those crypto users who fall into the trap of such scammers and lose money realize that the world is not so simple. So it's because you're smart enough to know the facts that keep you safe from scammers.

As I have mentioned in my previous post HERE (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5450712.msg62209602#msg62209602) that I have seen this many times on Instagram, I cam across it today too.
This time I paid more attention to it. What was really frustrating is that the ad was a sponsored ad.
Basically, Instagram is really careless with what ads they are allowing for users to promote.
This a huge concern because we don't know what will other users promote. It might end up scamming many.
I have done my due diligence of reporting the ad though and request the same if any of you guys see such ads then just report them.

http://talkimg.com/images/2023/05/13/photo_2023-05-13_20-21-2007367c273cc5b47e.jpeg http://talkimg.com/images/2023/05/13/photo_2023-05-13_20-21-5290dcd869d79b8e0f.jpeg http://talkimg.com/images/2023/05/13/photo_2023-05-13_20-21-48d81fe2eaff6e93c8.jpeg

They're just too scary to click on. It's better to avoid any type of suspicious ads not only on Instagram or Facebook, but on the internet overall.

I have a friend who was targeted by a phishing attack due to those ads, which led to a virus being installed on his OS. It turned out to be a ransomware that encrypted all of his important files, and he couldn't get them back. I don't think people should be scared of controlled ads that show up for example on YouTube, but there are certainly ads out there that could ruin someone's life if they're not careful enough.

Last time, I've just shared a fake Ledger pre-IPO scam. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5450938.0) And this is just posted on Facebook. These scammers are all over the place to find their preys and victimize with their scheme. I don't visit Instagram at most times but it's for sure that they're also there. While these scammers are showy with their posts and attractive images, don't be gullible with such because there's no easy money. And that's what they do, they'll take their victims from website to website and transfer them until they finally landed to their Telegram or even Whatsapp, as I've said they are everywhere.