Unmasking Telegram Crypto Scams: The Simple Guide

Phony Channels or Groups

Criminals tend to build replicas of real Telegram channels to trick their victims into believing they are joining a legitimate crypto channel. The admins of these fake Telegram channels may use identities that are almost matching to the real ones, and the channels themselves may have the same names, profile images, and pinned posts.

Typically, they are configured in a way that prevents users from composing chat messages. These fake channels typically advertise contests, flash sales, and other forms of discounts and rewards.

Once you join such channels, you might find yourself targeted by other members or admins who could attempt to deceive you into clicking on a suspicious link or revealing personal details, putting your identity at risk of theft.

Telegram Bot Attacks

Artificial intelligence allows Telegram bots to have lifelike conversations. They can make you question your sanity because they are so lifelike.

By using automated phone calls, cybercriminals tempt victims into divulging sensitive information such as login credentials, two-factor authentication (2FA) codes, banking details, and passcodes.

The bots behind these assaults often create a sense of emergency, use suspicious phone numbers, make grammatical and spelling errors, and ask for personal information in a misleading way.

Free Prizes

The criminals behind Bitcoin giveaway scams use the hype of cryptocurrencies on Telegram to further their own illicit agendas. Scammers often use fake Telegram groups or channels that pose as popular cryptocurrency personalities or campaigns to trick unsuspecting victims.

Scammers say they’re going to host a raffle and offer consumers huge rewards if they transfer a little bit of crypto to participate or prove they’re eligible. However, when people send their money, these con artists just vanish without a trace, and the victims are left with no money, even if they were promised rewards.

People who don’t know any better may be more susceptible to these scams because they promise quick money and pretend to be legitimate organizations.

Lookalike Accounts

For security reasons, Telegram usernames are like Social Security Numbers, so scammers can’t copy them. Their strategy to get over this is to make up account names that sound like real ones.

A lot of the time, scammers change the letters or intentionally misspell something so the fake username looks almost identical to the real one. For example, they may change the letter “I” to the lowercase letter “L” in the Telegram handle.

When you seek advice in online forums, it’s common for fraudulent individuals to emerge, presenting themselves as helpful members. Their ultimate goal often involves hijacking your Telegram account or directing you to malicious websites, aiming to pilfer your personal details.

Because it is more difficult to confirm the identity of a person in a personal chat, you should be careful with group administrators or those who choose to communicate with you privately versus publicly.

Pump & Dump

Numerous individuals become ensnared in pump-and-dump plots via Telegram, often orchestrated within specific groups dedicated to artificially inflating the perceived worth of certain cryptocurrencies. Participants in these schemes collaborate to project an exaggerated value of a digital asset, subsequently liquidating their stakes to reap profits before abandoning the scheme for a new fraudulent venture.

To lure investors, these fraudsters disseminate false information or make extravagant claims about the asset’s potential, creating a buying frenzy that elevates the asset’s price. Once unsuspecting investors have driven up the value, the schemers offload their holdings, securing a hefty gain at the expense of genuine traders, leaving them with significant losses. This cycle of deception not only enriches the scammers but also undermines the integrity of the cryptocurrency market, causing financial harm to honest participants.

The lack of supervision and responsibility in the cryptocurrency industry makes Telegram an ideal platform for scammers to launch pump-and-dump operations.

You should never trust an organization that claims it can guarantee you a profit via “insider” or “VIP” tips and strategies.

Fake Experts

Some people on Telegram pose as crypto analysts, promising to give you signals or tips in exchange for a fee. This is one of the most common Telegram crypto scams.

Scam artists typically set up shop on Telegram and claim to have exclusive knowledge while offering investors huge profits.

To make themselves seem more credible, they could use deceptive graphics, exaggerated testimonials, or phony credentials.

People who pay for these services may end up receiving misleading or insufficient data after their payment.

Fake Customer Support Teams

Within this strategy, a con artist poses as a client on any prominent cryptocurrency exchange’s chat room, monitoring consumer requests using a phony account that closely resembles the actual one. 

In such a discussion, the users often begin to find solutions to their issues; for example, they may report a glitch with the website, an issue with withdrawing coins from the wallet, a very long wait in transfer processing, etc. In this situation, the exchange admin usually says they’ll take care of it, set up a ticket, and then go on to other individuals.

The attacker is patiently waiting for this chance to strike, and in a DM, they begin promising faster responses than a ticket in the line. Usually, tickets have no priority, so you’ll be forced to wait a while to get your issue solved. 

If you look closely at the phony account, you’ll see that it has the same logo and a similar name to that of the real one. For example, they may add “_support” or “supportrep” to the official name to make it seem like it belongs to the support department of the exchange when in reality it doesn’t.

When a user is in dire need of help, especially financially, he or she may confuse a fraudster for a legitimate representative of the exchange offering assistance. Then, once they hand over their sensitive credentials in a “support team” chat, the attacker can easily rob them of all their assets.

Phony Surveys

This time around, the fraud is aimed at high-profile people with substantial crypto asset holdings who utilize the platforms. To create a clientele of high-profile users, all it takes is “persuading” an insider member of the exchange to commit fraud or get access to customer records and hand them over to the crooks. 

Sometimes, there’s an easier solution, and that’s joining the platform’s VIP Telegram group via an invite and getting easy access to every one of the members.

There is always a cost associated with crypto exchange operations, especially when it comes to withdrawing assets from wallets. To major traders, this is a hefty sum. Predators prey on people’s desire for lower rates.

Scammers with expertise in the market choose a possible victim and invite them to a phony “VIP” channel with the promise of lower rates or better commissions. 

In it, they are kindly requested to write a review evaluating the fee structure of the top coin exchanges, and they can also access an Excel file with a data comparison table.

After the VIP customer opens a “Fee structure table.xls” file that contains commands, a backdoor virus is activated on their computer. The virus then takes some DLLs and gives intruders remote control over the compromised device. 

Hackers look through all of a victim’s hard drive folders for credentials and seed phrases. They then upload a keystroke spyware and take over the victim’s online sign-in processes. They take out the money as soon as they get all the details they need.