URGENT & BEWARE: Sophisticated Telegram Scammers

[actmyname]

what's the link between here and telegram? how do they know your telegram userids corresponding to the ones here?

Some people may not know that certain users on the forum do not use Telegram, or they may not know of their actual Telegram IDs. When transacting with another member, Newbies are much more likely to make a reply and possibly get Telegram-impostor'd (among other services) if they attached their contact information. Moreover, due to the PM restrictions, you're more likely to see those very same new users trade/communicate off-forum. It's a death spiral waiting to happen.

Something else that may happen is that someone will use an impostor escrow and you'll find that they've matched the Telegram information of the original escrow account - someone did this using my credentials in the past.If your username is similar across platforms, you can easily be attacked. Unfortunately, not everyone has golden OPSEC and most likely have two or more accounts that share the same username across websites.

[guillaume.bonnot]

This post should be sticked up !

I also got contacted, so beware !

[blucepheus]

what's the link between here and telegram? how do they know your telegram userids corresponding to the ones here?

Some people may not know that certain users on the forum do not use Telegram, or they may not know of their actual Telegram IDs. When transacting with another member, Newbies are much more likely to make a reply and possibly get Telegram-impostor'd (among other services) if they attached their contact information. Moreover, due to the PM restrictions, you're more likely to see those very same new users trade/communicate off-forum. It's a death spiral waiting to happen.

Something else that may happen is that someone will use an impostor escrow and you'll find that they've matched the Telegram information of the original escrow account - someone did this using my credentials in the past.If your username is similar across platforms, you can easily be attacked. Unfortunately, not everyone has golden OPSEC and most likely have two or more accounts that share the same username across websites.

Wonderful world we live in...  

[MoparMiningLLC]

easy solution - if you use telegram put a link or your telegram handle in your profile/signature

[blucepheus]

easy solution - if you use telegram put a link or your telegram handle in your profile/signature

That makes you an easier target, IMO. They’ll add you to the list. Very few newbies will take the time to reference your profile or signature before closing a “deal.”

The best solution is to not use Telegram outside of conversations with trusted friends.

The next best solution is to use an obscure username only provided to folks in your trusted network so you cannot easily be contacted by scammers.

[actmyname]

That makes you an easier target, IMO. They’ll add you to the list. Very few newbies will take the time to reference your profile or signature before closing a “deal.”

The best solution is to not use Telegram outside of conversations with trusted friends.

The next best solution is to use an obscure username only provided to folks in your trusted network so you cannot easily be contacted by scammers.

I would still suggest using signed messages to verify identities - in all cases, you know you're dealing with the same individual with the same keys. Whereas Telegram may lead to impostors, you still aren't necessarily protected from any forum hack: if someone managed to get the details for an account or managed to send out a PM in some manner without having verified their identity, then this shouldn't be a problem as long as you always seek out a signed message before any money is moved.

[Heisenberg_Hunter]

I would like to shed some light regarding an incident which I faced a few months back in Dec 2020 - Jan 2021. I was contacted by a friend of friend who indeed introduced me to a stranger whom he spoke with and became friends in a crypto related telegram group. The stranger (whom the friend of friend may know in real life too) initiated a chat with me stating that they have a 0.5 btc loaded casascius coins, a few bitcoin pennies, papersafe and polymerbits and was willing to sell them. They indeed asked me to help them with the sale which I was initially hesitant to move forward. Regarding myself, only a very few (less than 5) of my real life people know that I am involved in bitcoin and absolutely none of them know that I used to buy collectibles occasionally.

So I tried to help them and asked a few pictures along with the date and time written on a piece of paper. To the contrary, all the pictures provided were stolen from forum's previous auctions and some were as old as 2011 Bitbills sale from coblee. Once I said them they were trying to scam me, they blocked me and has never contacted my friend of friend as well. 

In this difficult occasion of various scams going all over the collectible market, I am requesting every collectible user who shares their collections in Instagram just like me to make their account Private and accept only collectors who are known to us to prevent further scams. Along with that, let us limit our transactions through Discord/Telegram and as others have suggested we need to pin this topic for the welfare of newbies too.

[Heisenberg_Hunter]

sometime I think it would help much more to get hands on those people actively: pretend to be interested in a purchase (fake-sale), insist on real life handover and then show up with police and get rid of such people.

I am from a third world country which has poor education, has hell a lot of scammers and mostly an anti-bitcoin country. If I end up showcasing myself that I deal with bitcoin and collectibles, there are possibilities that I would be questioned by police even before the scammers gets jailed. This is probably one of the reason, I am maintaining an extremely low profile with real life people over here.

AFAIK there are less than 7-8 collectors (including me) from my country and I have personally dealt with one of them on various trades  Also, there are various recent reports of my country's customs seizing hardware wallets like Ledger and Trezor and importing ASIC along with mining any kind of altcoins are banned as well. Hence, I am unwilling to risk myself in the process of exposing such scammers to the police.

[MoparMiningLLC]

easy solution - if you use telegram put a link or your telegram handle in your profile/signature

That makes you an easier target, IMO. They’ll add you to the list. Very few newbies will take the time to reference your profile or signature before closing a “deal.”

The best solution is to not use Telegram outside of conversations with trusted friends.

The next best solution is to use an obscure username only provided to folks in your trusted network so you cannot easily be contacted by scammers.

Newbies - more than anyone - should take their time to do the research and check profiles. Most of the people that contact me via telegram also ask that I confirm via a dm on the forums that they are speaking to me.

In the end, if you are doing any type of deal there should always be multiple levels of confirmation and verification before you just send crypto/fiat/items

[guillaume.bonnot]

This post should be made sticky, random people contact me on telegram every time I post an offer, so it should also happen to people who are not aware of this.

[blucepheus]

This post should be made sticky, random people contact me on telegram every time I post an offer, so it should also happen to people who are not aware of this.

Yeah, tried... mods ignored the request

[ChiBitCTy]

This post should be made sticky, random people contact me on telegram every time I post an offer, so it should also happen to people who are not aware of this.

Yeah, tried... mods ignored the request

Maybe @SatsLife can add this link to his pinned thread. Kinda fits in with the theme.

[SatsLife]

Maybe @SatsLife can add this link to his pinned thread. Kinda fits in with the theme.

Added.

[Orly57]

Thought I would chime in and add to this excellent post with something similar that happened to me today. This scammer emailed me with an email address that appeared to be that of MinerJones. I had bid on one of MinerJones’ items on the forum, and the email requested that I either verify my wallet address or leave Bitcoin in escrow before the auction ended. As a new member, the request didn’t surprise me because I know that guys on the forum are very wary of newbies (understandably so). Thinking that the request from MinerJones was reasonable, I gave him only the receive address of my wallet. I then received an email from him where he offered to remove the listing and sell me the item for an agreed price. I found this suspicious, but, optimistically agreed to an amount in the heat of the moment.

Here’s where it gets interesting. I told him that I was going to pm him on the board in order to confirm that the person emailing me is the same person selling the item on the board (the REAL MinerJones). So I PM’d MinerJones. I then received an email from the scammer that showed my pm to MinerJones!!! This made it seem as if he’s the real guy. After all, how else would he get that PM? Unconvinced, I said “please respond via pm on the board.”  I then received a PM FROM MY OWN ACCOUNT to me! I guess that he couldn’t fake a pm from MinerJones, but was able to PM me from my own account. On the pm was the message I’d sent MinerJones and a message from the scammer saying “ok, I’ve replied twice now😊.” Once I realized that the pm came from my own account, my suspicions were confirmed. Unfortunately, it makes me think that maybe my account has been hacked. But fortunately, disaster was averted and the scammers didn’t get a cent. Later, a wonderful board member (Bitbuddy60) called me and connected me to the discord and the real MinerJones. I hope that this unpleasant experience will help others. Now I’m just pissed off that the entire interaction happened while that .25 Lealana sold. I would have bid on it if I weren’t busy dealing with this shit! Anyway, I look forward to dealing with you guys, and I’m really happy to be on this board.

[OgNasty]

^ I’m glad you didn’t end up losing any money. Any clue as to how your account became compromised by the attempted scammer in the first place? In my experience, every single time someone has mentioned telegram they have turned out to be a scammer. At this point I try and avoid anyone who ever uses the platform. It’s for the best. Stay away from telegram. There’s literally not a single good thing that will ever come out of using it.

[Orly57]

^ I’m glad you didn’t end up losing any money. Any clue as to how your account became compromised by the attempted scammer in the first place? In my experience, every single time someone has mentioned telegram they have turned out to be a scammer. At this point I try and avoid anyone who ever uses the platform. It’s for the best. Stay away from telegram. There’s literally not a single good thing that will ever come out of using it.

I don’t even know what telegram is. Never used it. This scammer straight-up emailed me to my email account. It’s on my profile here, so that’s probably how he got it.

[minerjones]

Found out why newbie accounts that seemingly get hacked are unable to receive PMs
Apparently whoever got control of their account put a star  *   in their PM block.. hard to see and many new accounts don't know where to look to remove this

Go into "Profile" on the top menu bar
The on the left menu in the "Modify Profile" group, click on "Personal Message Options"
There you can remove the  *