[WARNING] efialtis impersonator on Telegram

[efialtis]

Hey guys,

I have just been informed that someone on Telegram is pretending to be me, obviously trying to scam people.

He contacted D__R2 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2824776) in order to sell him some $200 ebay gift card for $150 in BTC. He sent my bitcointalk profile link and fortunately, D__R2 checked my post history, found it odd and sent me a pm here asking if it was me.

This is not me! Please be careful!

[1714900696]

1714900696

[TalkStar]

Hey guys,

I have just been informed that someone on Telegram is pretending to be me, obviously trying to scam people.

Its a clear sign that your popularity level has been increased but sorry to say that this time its among scammers. Lol. Just fun. Honestly its hard to stop this idiots from continuing this kinda activities on telegram where they can easily plant new scam trap by changing usernames and creating almost similar looking username of other members.

Thanks for letting us know about this attempt and hope who want to contact will reach you through forum PM. After experiencing recent telegram related scam attempt i always suggest everyone to justify the real person through giving a PM on forum account before making any deal.

fortunately, D__R2 checked my post history, found it odd and sent me a pm here asking if it was me.

He did the right thing which saved him from getting scammed.

[D__R2]

I can confirm everything in this thread, this person messaged me yesterday on telegram to sell me a gift card. he sent me @efialtis profile and told me that it's his. I checked his post history and he seemed like he has nothing to do with gift cards and his interest is in other business stuff, not to mention he has a lot of rep so he wouldn't go to a newbie to sell a gift card. I pm'd him on forum and he told me that it isn't him.

[Yaunfitda]

They say that "impersonation is a form of flattery", but not this time though. Damn, those scammers are really monitoring this community and since as of late @efialtis has getting a lot of attention, they see this opportunity to take advantage of the situation and try to scam someone. Good thing that no one falls for it and thanks to @D__R2 for making everyone aware.

[aioc]

I can confirm everything in this thread, this person messaged me yesterday on telegram to sell me a gift card. he sent me @efialtis profile and told me that it's his. I checked his post history and he seemed like he has nothing to do with gift cards and his interest is in other business stuff, not to mention he has a lot of rep so he wouldn't go to a newbie to sell a gift card. I pm'd him on forum and he told me that it isn't him.

You've done the right thing, this goes to everybody to pm the account that people in the telegram are sending to verify that they are the one sending the offer, using people's account here to scam others is very rampant but if you are aware of this and you know what to do you are not likely to get scam.

[minairia3]

I can confirm everything in this thread, this person messaged me yesterday on telegram to sell me a gift card. he sent me @efialtis profile and told me that it's his. I checked his post history and he seemed like he has nothing to do with gift cards and his interest is in other business stuff, not to mention he has a lot of rep so he wouldn't go to a newbie to sell a gift card. I pm'd him on forum and he told me that it isn't him.

Good you do some research first before doing a transaction. Telegram deals are likely to be the deal for scammers. There are lots of cases in telegram stealing their funds using impersonation. At first you can notice them cause they are good on using and changing some letters on the real users however if you think about it, most admin in telegram dont transact via pm. Same like users here in forum.

OP's identity is reputable here and to think he will message you in telegram is unlikely to happen. I think OP is more into gambling related than just a gift card seller.

[Rikafip]

Rule of thumb: when someone contacts you via Telegram offering you something, it is a scam. Block+delete chat. Follow this and you won't be fooled, ever. Since its plagued by scammers, Telegram is worst possible place to conduct any business whatsoever, even if you are experienced Telegram user, and should be avoided for such purposes (for chat it's great, no questions about it).

[Lucius]

I only used Telegram for a very short time, and then I got all kinds of spam/scam messages because the name was public in a spreadsheet (for signature campaign). It’s really ugly when someone uses our forum names to try to fool someone, and I'm glad that this attempt failed thanks to a forum user who did something that is only logical in a case like this.

I'm not sure if a Telegram user can be reported, but if there is such an option I would definitely use it - at least to try to make his life a little bitter.

[Rikafip]

I'm not sure if a Telegram user can be reported, but if there is such an option I would definitely use it - at least to try to make his life a little bitter.

Yep, you can report Telegram scammers. As far as I know, there are few ways to report them:
1. Simply contact @notoscam on Telegram and give all relevant info on scammer you have. As usual, the more you provide, the better.
2. Contact Telegram support and explain the issue, again giving as much info as you have
3.Then again, you can also report user for spamming, and again if enough people report the same account, he won't be able to send PM for certain period of time.

If report is valid scammer will get "Scam" tag on their account, so everyone knows whats going on. Unfortunately, I think that people rarely bother to do that as those scam tags are rare, I've seen maybe 10-15 of those so far  and I am heavy Telegram user.

[ScamViruS]

I have stopped using telegrams now only because of scammers. They always try to scam in telegrams using the names of popular people like used your name here because you are popular on Bitcointalk. If someone sends a message in the telegram first, it is important to verify the account well before making any transaction. And to my knowledge, popular and reputed members never give message to anyone from the front of the telegram. They do all kinds of transactions on Bitcointalk.