Telegram and it's misue for scammers.

[AB de Royse777]

Feel free to add a technique you were able to discover and let everyone aware to avoid being scammed. When you add yours, I encourage to share a little bit of the background of how you discovered it.

My whole campaign management business runs in Telegram and Bitcointalk PM and it's very easy for me to get trapped by the scammers. It requires me to stay alert always. But scammers try their everything to take their unethical share. They don't just try to fool me but they try to fool my clients too.

Other day Sinbad Management was telling me:

I think someone is trying to scam me with supposedly your account

My response was as usual, that's not me. Sinbad management is smart enough to understand the environment too. We both were aware so no harm happened but if one of us was not good enough to realize the attempt then there could be some financial loss.

Later the same guys (I don't think it could be anyone else, because both happened in the same day in a difference of few hours) PMed me pretending he is Sinbad. He failed though however it took me half an hour to understand the trick.

Let me share two screenshots (real username removed and conversation with real Sinbad also removed).

1. Original Sinbad



2. Fake Sinbad 



The thing that struggled me to find both username were the same. I checked letter by letter, both same. Nothing was there to differentiate the two accounts by username. But I knew there were something that I was missing and I did not give up until I found it.

When I was clicking on the original Sinbad username it was copying in the clipboard but when I was clicking on the fake Sinbad username it was showing the Sinbad profile and SEND MESSAGE link was taking me to original Sinbad chat (I was lost there and started to think Telegram have this error and the fake one is the real guy).



What the scammer did is:
Check image 1 and 2.
The scammer updated his bio with the same exact letters and symbol that Sinbad username has in Telegram. By default Telegram set your bio information in the same place where they display your username if you do not set up a username. The scammer discovered this little trick and utilized it with hope to scam either me or the Sinbad management.

Next time when you are receiving message then check twice. Under the username what does it say: Username or Bio?
Version used: Telegram Desktop

[OmegaStarScream]

I think the thing that could help people from getting scammed is your privacy settings:

1. Don't allow anyone to add you to groups/channels except for your own contacts, or nobody at all. I have been in real groups before, only to get added later to another one that looks exactly the same as the first one (with the same picture, and almost the same number of subscribers).
2. If possible, don't set a username. AFAIK, if you don't have one set, no one can message you.

I would also imagine that scammers don't want to spend any money, so maybe an animated avatar + custom emoji using Telegram Premium would help you protect the users of your channel to a certain degree.

[Learn Bitcoin]

This is how exactly scammers tried to scam our local thread user, Crypto Library, a few months ago.

Not only Crypto Library but also some others. If I am not wrong, one member was affected by this scam attempt. Telegram should forbid writing another telegram handle in the bio. People are getting fooled because of this. The first thing that should be noticed is that you will see the account is not in your contact. The 2nd thing is you have to check why there are no old messages. If they have cleared, why did they have to? If you see new messages, double-check the handle.

[Dunamisx]

We have to create time to make some adjustments to the settings on the use of telegram in such a way that does not allow people to misuse it purpose for their personal commitments, if you're a group admin then you can have the right to modify restrictions on members making posts, if you think this may be too much some disallowed posting links or making any other products advertisement, if you're a user, you can also make decision by restricting anyone from adding you to their group without seeking your permission, people now easily pass across physhing and malicious links via telegram groups if not well moderated to kick against such, and if we received any by chance we should learn to disregard them.

[logfiles]

It's why I developed a total hate for telegram. I used to love it back then, until it became a safe haven for scammers. Royse777, whenever you come across such accounts trying to scam you, I advise you to report for unsolicited PM spam and also scam.

You can also encourage your business partners to report the accounts. Telegram will block them from sending messages after a few reports. I have also seen cases where telegram leaves a banner near the username of an account showing the word "SCAM" though I don't know the required threshold of reports before they decide to label it scam.

[Findingnemo]

AFAIK, Telegram doesn't provide any feature to hide the bio as a username or something like that, If they would this would be really helpful to get rid of these imposters. I am afraid there is no other way than to pay close attention to the username and Bio field whenever we receive a message as a new chat.

Reporting those scammers has no use because they will simply come up with new accounts and repeat the same thing again and again so reporting imposters is just a waste of our time.

[robelneo]

I used this trick when I was active in promotional I usually create a private group for me, and my client I create an invite link for him to join After he joined I revoked the invite link so the invite link I used to invite him would be invalid so no other account can get in or see the group, so whenever he messages me I just check our common groups and see if he is part of the group I created, I also advice him to do the same.

But of course, all communication should be done between us, The group is just a parameter to check if we are communicating with the real account, and there is an agreement that the group will be deleted only after the tasks and agreements are done.

But the best parameter is still knowing your contact or being familiar with how your contact communicates with you.

[tabas]

There have been a lot of cases of scams that have occurred in Telegram. That's why it is not just for the ICO projects, exchanges, airdrops, etc. But also you guys, Royse, they're targeted by these scammers knowing that you guys are popular in the forum and now a public figure. They're going to try any tactic that they can to at least fool someone using your publicity and identity. I think Telegram should do better and when there's a duplicate @ for each user, they shouldn't allow that to be put in the bio of a new person that tries to copy details of the orig identities.
Nice catch Royse but still be careful and the same goes to the other popular managers out there.

[PX-Z]

I see that the scammer's profile is still on your bounty telegram group removing him/her would be helpful. But nah, i guess that would not stop the scammer to do the same process waiting for another right time to do such thing.

I think Telegram should do better and when there's a duplicate @ for each user, they shouldn't allow that to be put in the bio of a new person that tries to copy details of the orig identities.

This is not about a duplicate @ because it wont work. Telegram should let every user have username as mandatory requirement to avoid this, if they can't remove the feature of not allowing entering @username in bio.

[Rikafip]

I think the thing that could help people from getting scammed is your privacy settings:

I would add one more thing and that is to disable automatic download of files whihc is for stupid reason enabled by default.

I would also imagine that scammers don't want to spend any money, so maybe an animated avatar + custom emoji using Telegram Premium would help you protect the users of your channel to a certain degree.

That's actually a pretty good advice for those that are doing anything more serious on Telegram as scammers will unlikely spend $5 dollars.


Another common scamming technique that is aimed at telegram admins is when scammers pretend to be employer of the said admin, asking him for quick loan that he will later return. Years ago I was TG admin for some shitcoin and "CEOs" contacted me, asking me for some money as they needed it asap and they would return it to me in a few hours. What they obviously forgot (or hoped that I will forget) is that I already had the chat with the CEO so it was easy to realize that those are not the real accounts (beside obviously not having the same username).

Another trick that scammers use is when they pretend to be someone who has small "L" or capital "I" in their username as those letters look very similar on Telegram.

[salad daging]

Glad you have shared your experience here so many know on Telegram that too many fake accounts by trying to cheat intend to become your clients,I would not be surprised that telegram is a hotbed of scammers are.

But I want to ask if with Telegram premium paid and also there is a blue tick it can be categorized as safe, in the sense that he is an official user and not a clone?

The ones I've encountered on average are scammers on telegram never with no blue tick, but maybe I'm missing it.

And one more now phishing site was able to migrate with its new official sinbad design.

[Faisal2202]

Scammers are really using 100% of their brains. I mean, if they would have used that much brain in white hacking, they must be at the top. But everyone has their own agendas. What really amazes me is that they are trying on you. I mean, you are the most educated member and have a lot of information about such scams in crypto, and knowing that they are still trying to trick you, you are ticked off by them.

Then how newcomers could be saved from it. Well, I am not a person who needs TG for business things because here in my country TG is banned, so we have to use proxies at first hand, and most of the people are not using TG. I, as a freelancer, was told to deal with a lot of agencies on TG, but my experience was bad with them as they want work to be submitted first, then the amount will be sent to me.

And in my field, I have seen such cases a lot, and I knew this was just scammers trying hard to trick me into doing their work for free. So, I have other ways to contact my clients, and TG is not one of them.

But thanks for sharing this useful piece of information, as it really adds a lot to the knowledge base.

[NotATether]

- If they start the message with just "Hello".
- If they mention at any point, crypto investing.
- If they try to call you abruptly.
- If they use emojis like a dumb-arse.
- If their profile picture is a hot chick (the real ones don't use Telegram).

Then they are a scammer.

Scammers are really using 100% of their brains. I mean, if they would have used that much brain in white hacking, they must be at the top. But everyone has their own agendas. What really amazes me is that they are trying on you. I mean, you are the most educated member and have a lot of information about such scams in crypto, and knowing that they are still trying to trick you, you are ticked off by them.

You don't need 100% brain to scam. You can get away with half a brain. Orange Tan Guy is a walking example of that.

[tabas]

I think Telegram should do better and when there's a duplicate @ for each user, they shouldn't allow that to be put in the bio of a new person that tries to copy details of the orig identities.

This is not about a duplicate @ because it wont work. Telegram should let every user have username as mandatory requirement to avoid this, if they can't remove the feature of not allowing entering @username in bio.

Forgot to say that I was looking and referring to crypto library's pic reference but yeah, you're right that Telegram should have that mandatory because are they aware that they're now a scammers den? And how it's easy it is to be abused by these people that don't have good intention but to scam people and impersonate the genuine people inside their platform. I'd agree to the suggestion that if you're having a reputation, it's a good idea to avail that premium to protect your name and business.

[yhiaali3]

Thank you for sharing this helpful experience to avoid scams. This is new information for me. It never occurred to me that a username could be written in a bio. This is a major bug in Telegram that can cause many people to become victims of fraud.

Sometimes I receive messages on Telegram from people I don't know, and when I look at the username I see (hidden - mobile). This is what I consider to be a bug in Telegram that can also be abused.

These scammers never tire and look for any mistakes to reach their goals, so it is very useful to share such experiences to expose their malicious tricks and warn people not to fall into their trap.

[Potato Chips]

But I want to ask if with Telegram premium paid and also there is a blue tick it can be categorized as safe, in the sense that he is an official user and not a clone?

The ones I've encountered on average are scammers on telegram never with no blue tick, but maybe I'm missing it.

I'd say no and I wouldn't completely rely on blue tick marks.

One thing I've learned is no matter how rigorious the verification process is, people seem to find a way to slip through hence the market for buying and selling verified accounts.

Best to always keep a good amount of caution because even our known contacts can be hacked. It's not on telegram, but 2 of my friends on discord were hacked and started spamming nitro scam on DM's.

[BitMaxz]

I have experience with these tactics by scammers that I thought it came from official telegram. I received a notification from a telegram group(fake) that I thought it was official but after asking a few questions about the coins that I mined the weird thing that I noticed is they said they are migrating to the Solana blockchain old coins will no longer be usable after migration and they asked to send my backup seed or backup wallet to migrate my coins to a new blockchain.

After reading that message from him that I thought official support in their telegram I did much research until I found out it was a fake telegram group I just went to the real website and I clicked the telegram group it redirected me to the original telegram group and I ask about the migration but they said there was no migration and the telegram group that I access recently is fake. I was lucky I didn't fall into their trap I tried to search for the fake telegram group but, weirdly, I can't able to find it anymore However, on my dummy telegram account I can still access them it's weird they do have the same username when I search it.

[dzungmobile]

The scammer updated his bio with the same exact letters and symbol that Sinbad username has in Telegram. By default Telegram set your bio information in the same place where they display your username if you do not set up a username. The scammer discovered this little trick and utilized it with hope to scam either me or the Sinbad management.

Next time when you are receiving message then check twice. Under the username what does it say: Username or Bio?

Many scam tricks on Telegram and impersonating by hiding Username space and use Bio space as a fake username is one of scam methods.

• Some Telegram tips for newcomers in the crypto community
• Telegram scams
• Do this if you don't want to be dragged to different telegram ICOs
• Check username - pay attention on similar characters like I and l, o and 0 and similar; check Username and Bio spaces - usually a real user will not put the same information to Username and Bio spaces like @Royse in username and @Royse in Bio. If putting something into Bio space, it should be a personal description etc.

If being more careful, let's apply these tricks to Stop Auto-Download on Telegram: Working Methods for Desktop, iPhone, Android.

[AB de Royse777]

It turns out an army of scammers are impostoring me and anyone else who are trying to do business with me LOL

I will never send any payment address via telegram anymore, only using forum PM.

My clients are advised to check previous conversations before making any financial transaction.

Just check the recent development on the group: https://t.me/R7BountyQA
These scammers are always looking for way to scam others.

[tabas]

It turns out an army of scammers are impostoring me and anyone else who are trying to do business with me LOL

I will never send any payment address via telegram anymore, only using forum PM.

My clients are advised to check previous conversations before making any financial transaction.

Just check the recent development on the group: https://t.me/R7BountyQA
These scammers are always looking for way to scam others.

I think Royse, they'll never stop bothering and doing scam attempts using your name and your group. There could be a few things I'm thinking that you can do to keep your clients informed which has been mentioned but I'll try to merge them and as well as the members in your channel.

- Make a bot that consistently posts a reminder on what's your official account and to beware of your impostors.
- Hire someone if you still haven't it or a couple of people to monitor the influx of your new members in a daily basis since it's easy to change names and that's what they're doing against you.
- Lastly, avail the telegram premium or what it is to give you the blue badge as the official you.

I know you'll win over these impostors and scammers that are riding on your popularity as a manager these days.