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In April, a client reached out to me via Telegram for a writing project. Eager to do this job, we agreed on terms, and they committed to paying $4000 for the job. An upfront payment of $2500 was made, setting the stage for what seemed like a promising collaboration.

However, the tale took an unexpected turn when, after the initial contact, my client vanished into the digital abyss. Messages went unanswered, and my attempts to reach them proved futile. It was as if they had been swallowed by the virtual void.

Fast forward more than seven months later (yesterday), a flicker of hope emerged. A Telegram notification lit up my screen, and to my surprise, it was from the long-lost client. Excitement quickly turned to suspicion as the messages unfolded. The person chatting with me was definitely not the client becase he knew nothing about our deal and rather was fishing for information from me.

Red flags waved as I realized that the digital landscape had shifted. The client's display name was the same until 24 hours later when it was changed from Alex Merg to John B. (so obviously fake).  

Alarmed and wary, I took a step back to assess the situation. The disappearance of my original client, coupled with the change in name, raised concerns about the legitimacy of the individual on the other end of the screen. It begged the question: Was this the same client, or had their account fallen into the wrong hands? Since this client held a large amount of crypto, could he have lost his phone and more? Was he kidnapped?


Beware of the Telegram account @roii99s, as it appears to now be in the hands of a criminal. Whether the original client's phone was lost or a more sinister plot is at play, it serves as a reminder that the digital realm requires constant vigilance. If you have a suggestion on how to report this to law enforcement such as Interpol, do let me know. Every crypto holder should also be careful out there, especially if you're a whale.



Update: Another writer is accusing Alex of scam as seen here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5454791.msg62339214#msg62339214. Personally, I wouldn't subscribe to that since he hasn't even been active on blockchain since May. Moreso, I only did half of the job with the anticipation that he would pay up before completing it. Further more, he's got more than enough coins to decend to the level of scamming a measly $1,500 or $2,500 from me and steve5946 as the case may be.

Who would know a Telegram user with username Jesse Cooper? I don't know how they found out that Alex gave me a job and what link they have. This particular individual actually tried discouraging me from doing the job after receiving payment from Alex.

Crazy story. I question if there’s really someone out there that would put a $2,500 deposit down with a stranger they met on telegram for a writing project, but I guess crazier things have happened. This is a good example of how escrow could have gotten the seller their full payment after the disappearance of the buyer, but again, seems like a bit of a tale to me.

Everything could happen.

We could make out possible reasons for that change of ownership of that client account that you are talking.

1. Hacked account
2. Had given the account to someone else neither sold or voluntary

We cant tell that your previous client was kidnapped or been abducted just because his messaging account was held by other person?
No its not. If he isnt the real client that you have transacted or deal in the past then its better to ignore.
Dont hope about on the balance that your client has into you, yes its a waste since you havent get paid
but it is already that too long and its better not to make yourself that too hopeful.

We know that being concern is there but there are things in life that isnt within our reach and there's no point on keep bothering yourself.

Often these scammers use services that provide temporary numbers or even Telegram accounts, and after a period of time they sell them or the service provider sells them, and a third party may buy them. Therefore, this third party does not necessarily have to be a scammer, but it is better not to deal with any account on Telegram without using escrow.

Back to your story, did they pay you the remaining $4,000, or did the project stop, or what?

That can as well be changed by whoever is in control of the account at the moment.

I do not think the situation suggests at all that the user was kidnapped, possibly lost access to their account and has not been able to recover it, or had an accident.

If the buyer never received the product, will the escrow opt to give full payment to the seller, or wait to get a word from all involved parties.

- Jay -

Hmmm, HMMMM!!!!!!!!  ;D


And further on
https://ninjastic.space/post/62083431

It's November, 7 months ago means still April from last contact so it kind of aligns with the other events.
Get in touch with the other guy, he might know something, then, it's your choice, but depending on where you live police might be not doing a thing to laugh and kick you out of the station.

If your story is real, then there could be some sort of possibility for why things happen that way: either the person lost the device and has no means of getting it back, or the mobile number was also not retrieved. In my country, if your mobile number is inactive for some months, the service provider will sell the number to another customer, which could also be a possible means for someone to use and recover the telegram from the old users.
 
Or it could also be that, as a result of what Hugblack mentioned, scammers making use of online mobile number providers for social media verification who have a higher network or pay more can get your own number from you and restrict your access, so that could also be the case.
 
So in the writing job that you were given to conduct, there is no private information given to you that could be used to track down your clients that give you work if you really want to get your work done or refund the money.


The story has already been questioned the first time the OP came up with it earlier this year, in June 2023.  Update on Someone Paid Me $2,500 in April and Forgot...  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5457752.msg62468840#msg62468840)

In the story - the client disappeared and could not be contacted after the initial payment, possibly subsequent payments were not made. But this is an old story that was then pumped back up by the OP under the pretext of warning others about the potential for fake people controlling his client's telegram account. If the OP is honest and has no other motive - then it would be logical for him to send the bitcoin back to his client's address without shouting to find out where the client is, especially since he knows his client is a large crypto owner.

They paid $2,500. I did half the job as we agreed. I'd have completed it if they paid the balance of $1,500.

I couldn't figure out what happened in the chat at https://ninjastic.space/post/62083431. Was Alex scammed by the previous writer?


Even their blockchain activity stopped around the same period.

Some people can be very easy trusting and liberal with money. Sometimes it is because they have enough money, sometimes it is also due to naivety.

I suspect more that due to his easy trusting character, he may have been hacked via phisphing links and not kidnapped.

Their Telegram accounts have been compromised. Your client is still alive somewhere, just that he has lost contact with you.

I can't believe that because a person who I didn't know ever and even I didn't met him before in my life how could I gave that person the 2500$ just for messaging me on telegram?

This is out of the World thinking as if you really trust him then it is your own thinking but I don't know how would your trust that person by giving him the money without knowing him.

BTW if this happens to me I would never trust a single person because most people message me through these social media and telegram but I never reply to them and after some days their telegram account got deletes.

If I understood your narration very well, I wouldn't be too warried about who the new person is behind the telegram account. I am more concerned about the deposit that has been made to you. Are you going to inform law enforcement agencies and give them the money so that they can carry out an investigation and where possible trace and return the money to the owner since the job was not done? Just block the new person and the problem is solved. Whenever the old person resurfaces, they can always reach via your telegram handle.

Right from the beginning till the end I feel something fishy and there's more to it, I have been in this domain for a while and client paying upfront $2500 is something unheard of, regardless of of who the imposter is behind this telegram account which you have mentioned just check with him if he/she can help you understand how did they got this account and there are possibilities of this person getting recycled number and when you discussed about the project he is trying his luck to fish more information. But I don't think anyone paying $2500 and disappearing is normal, to be on a safer end you may report this to the relevant authorities as it could help them if and the client are from same country else just don't stress out.

The story is really odd. Who would dare to trust online and instantly send a decent amount of money and then vanish all of a sudden? Is this some kind of a trap or a joke or whatsoever. But the way I understand it, the first user might have compromised his account and now other person has been using his account and he's trying to put you in a situation where its like nobody happened and he was the same user you have been in a conversation in the previous months.

My best advice for you is simply to block that account. If he's really a scammer, then the more that you'll get rid of him and never entertain him again. On the part of the original user you have been in agreement, if he's still alive, I think he's still in the process of trying to access to you so just wait for that time to come.

Escrow has always been the most preached word to people to use ones they do business online most especially telegram. If the person doesn’t trust an escrow then you will see for yourself that he is scammer. Another thing again concerning Escrow is never use the one provided by the other party making the payment because most of them turn out to be scammers too working together.

As for OP I don’t see kidnap in this case because you can’t just kidnap someone and be using their phone it will be easy to track you down by that if law enforcement agencies who should definitely be looking for the kidnapper get involves

This is just mad mad lol. I'm a writer myself and it sucks that not only are we sidelined since our work's "not that important anyway in the business setting", we're also oftentimes victims of scams like these. Got scammed a year ago as well when I was told that I would be paid 30 bucks per quick read that I would make, I made 100 thinking I'd get paid handsomely until they just vanished from thin air.

One thing that I would really recommend you do, is give them an update that you're finished with the work you're tasked, send a screenshot for reference but do not by all means send them any links or whatsoever that would lead them to your works. Long as they are holding you onto something, they're not going to let go of the process. If I had been a little smart back then I would've done the same but oh well. Good luck my friend.

Op you just have to know that the person is a scammer. I mean the second person that chatted you up with ALEX telegram account is a scammer. And Alex is not kidnapped but the person who was chatted you up after the disappearance of Alex was a client to Alex and the person successfully scammed Alex so now he is using Alex account to chat up all the contact to scam them. Now the person asked you to stop the project and letter the person will tell you to refund the money. Therefore, you have to be careful with him before he scam you too.

The story is some funny but there is element of truth. yes as Casdinyard suggested, tell the person that is chatting with that you have finished the job so he should pay the balance and from there you will know the real person behind the scene. Then another thing I am also suspecting is that probably the account has been hacked.

I’ve heard that there are people out there who could hack your telegram accounts and all that stuff remotely. They just install a trojan virus that triggers when you open a file or aomething along those lines. I’ve been a victim of one in the past, where not only did I get my identity stolen, I also lost all my crypto saved from hot wallets (I was holding around 6000 SLPs that time and this was back when Axie Infinity’s still something for the crypto industry.

I would suggest you stop interacting with that person cause they could send you something later on and you may fall into getting hacked as I did in the past. Be very vigilant my friends.

I don't think that money is the issue here, it was a upfront payment to the OP, so obviously he did the job and just waiting for the rest of the money for the completion. However, the person that he talks to Telegram suddenly disappear and then resurface as some time with a new name and that's why he is asking if it is still the original person that he talks that deposit $2,500 or a different one.

If it is a different person so when the hell does the original person that contacted him and give him the job and the downpayment?

So it's really hard to give advise here, we can all speculate as to what happen to the original person (I assume the OP thinks that hew as kidnapped?). Or it is still the same person, why he went silent after half a year and it seems that he is not concern with his $2,500 or if the job has been finished as agreed and on time?

It’s unfortunate that the telegram account has been hacked and a different person now supposedly has control of the TG. $2500 is no small amount, there should be more than just a telegram conversation to initiate such a transaction perhaps you two must have exchanged emails at some point. I suggest you exhaust all attempts to contact your client before concluding that he’s been kidnapped.

Yes, i heard same story in services section, i dont know if the telegram user who he deal with enable to get the service they paid for, just like OP. But it's the same, the op got offers, paid 50% in thousand of $$$ then never got an update after.
About the assumption of being kidnapped, i dont think its the case and we should not speculate such kind of things.

If I am not mistakenly I have came across similar story with exact amount as mentioned by op, does it mean that is same story since then or what?
Sometimes it's very hard to believe cooked and formulated stories that is very hard to believe. Giving out such amount of funds and disappeared without even having to get the job to know if it was delivered as said, then who is running at lost? The op or his clients and who should get bothered that much if I may ask?

this title is definitely a clicker but i’d say let’s all calm down and don’t think of the worst

your client probably just lost their phone or got their phone hacked


since you got your pay for the work you did, i suggest you just let it go and
don’t stress yourself too much about it
it’s enough that you’ve shared awareness here

I am thinking of a situation in which your client can reach you again since the telegram that serves as the medium of communication between you and him is under the control of someone else(scammer as you address the person to be).

Does it now mean he can't contact you again for the ongoing writing project that he has made an upfront payment of $2500? Any other telegram chat you will receive concerning the deal of the writing project will be flagged as a scammer by you since your client's telegram account has changed hands.

I think, wherever your client is now if he is alive, he will be thinking of the unsettled project he has with you and how to reach you back if he has or can remember your telegram ID.

I'm sure I've read this type of story here a few months ago. No doubt,  many people also read it and the unscrupulous ones amongst us in this forum could be trying something sinister. Those who contacted you might've also read it here. You've a conscience and that's why you're doing all you can to contact your client because of the upfront they had already made. Keep searching, you're likely to find him one day. However, you must be careful because many imposters will approach on this.

That's why I don't tend to hang out in telegram groups because most apps like that are infested and hung out by exploitative people. I'm not saying that everyone on telegram is an opportunistic person; it's not like that.

That's why caution does something else, we know that when you enter the crypto space, the main goal of scammers or hackers is always one and that is to get money that is not theirs, and that's the only way. all they can do is scam and hack nothing else.

This reminds me of when one of my friends suddenly contacted me, but then I realized the number had changed hands. Long story short, his previous number was suspended by his provider and then they sold it again as if it was a new number. I'm pretty sure somebody got scammed with the same method, although it is unlikely that a scammer targets some number specifically. The lack of security measures from the provider also doesn't help in this case.

OP, if the account really changed hands, it is possible that the scammer is doing the same thing and tried to log in to any social media/communication app and see if there's any chat history worth researching. If I were you I'd do what others have told you, just wait until he can prove he is the same guy with a signed message or something before you continue your deal.

I don't know what made that client to pay you upfront as most of the times the clients don't pay in advance but in your case the client send you $2500 out of $4000 which is really crazy. The client that you had might be so rich that sending $2500 doesn't impact him that much. It would be great if you can share more about the project I mean it's really crazy to see someone sending $2500 upfront to a writer without hesitation.

Your client might have forgot about that payment as he might be too busy or you can say too rich to not care about the project. Sometimes as humans we lose our memories after a long period and that's not a thing to be worried about and changing of name doesn't proves that he isn't the same client that payed you upfront for doing that job.

I'm not sure if that happened in real or you're just making up a story but I'm pretty sure if that happened in real then there's something wrong with that client as no one would pay that beefy amount to a stranger freelancer whom they even don't know personally and no-one leaves the money the paid without getting the things from the one whom they paid that money.

yes that is what OP needs to do now because actually he is in favor here, 2500$ for half
of the job and the remaining 1500 for the another half , which means he had more than the remaining.

though Maybe OP is just acting towards human nature and not about the money anymore ,
because it is normal to have concern when you think there is something wrong happened and you can help
saving others in situation like this(if there is truly an speculation)

OP's story doesn't look real because it will be difficult for somebody or a client to just give you $2,500 without an escrow. I don't think anyone has such money to waste even billionaires might not make such a mistake. The story is more suspicious because the writer has come up with the same story some time ago. I don't know what he intends to achieve from these stories, maybe he wants people to trust him. But I doubt if he would achieve such an aim by coming up with this kind of story. 

OP said that the $2,500 was an upfront payment for the job and he has done half of it. His option should be to wait until the real client contacts him. And he should be able to verify that it is his original client not just through the telegram platform but through other means.   

You don't need to find out about the Telegram account other than just waiting and If your story is true then you don't need to tell anyone about the agreement that has occurred as well as the funds that have been sent to your wallet unless someone contacts you and can prove that he sent the funds so that work can continue, and you are not the party is at a loss so reporting it to the police just with the evidence you have will not solve the problem, so just wait until you contact you again and can prove that he was the first person to contact you and of course you have no right to use the funds until everything is clear.

We all know that "Telegram" is a scammers paradise, so you should never trust any anonymous user on that platform. This person obviously hooked you with the initial payment and then vanished into thin air.... getting 50% off on the work that was done.

This method are called a long con or exit scam... or so I am told, it is quite common for scammers to "hook" victims to gain their trust and then to cut and run, before anything else are paid.  :P

Though I can't say that something like that cannot happen, it still sounds strange that a person would pay such a high amount upfront for work they are getting done online while being in contact with the seller privately without having any third-party or escrow involved which could reduce the chances of getting scammed because you could easily take the money and block the guy without completing and sending the work and he could obviously do nothing much about that, maybe the agreements had something which could prevent that from happening but since we don't know we'll assume the possible.

Like a few other members, I'm also curious to know what happened about the project, whether you've completed the work and sent it or delayed the delivery since the guy went missing. Though I don't want to blame you for it, it all seems like a made-up story at some points, true at some.

Obviously it looks like the Telegram account was hacked. But a kidnapping? I'm not so sure, since there is so little information to back it up.


It takes just one bad apple to ruin an entire Telegram channel. Especially when there is little to no moderation or the channel admins are not vigilant enough, "crypto-beggars" run rampant in people's DMs.