Since entering the crypto market, some time ago I have witnessed the emergence of scamming and how it has increased at an alarming rate, especially over recent months.
It seems the main hideouts for scammers are Telegram, and to a lessor extent Discord. They tend to focus predominantly on platforms that use a form of instant messaging rather than static content such as websites. This presumably is because it gives them the ability to create a sense of urgency to get innocent victims to depart with their hard earned assets.
Telegram specifically is full of scammers and there doesn't seem to be any action, now or planned to alleviate the problem.
Whilst Telegram has firmly cemented it place in the cryptocurrency space as the main communication tool, the rise of scammers has increased exponentially.
If you are like me, you entered the world of Telegram fairly early on in your crypto journey.
It wasn't long before I started to get direct messages from users masquerading as legitimate members of blockchain projects or Administrators of the many Telegram groups I joined.
Luckily for me, I tend to err on the side of caution with any new venture and although I almost fell foul to a few scammers, my naturally suspicious nature enabled me to dodge what could have been a catastrophe for my crypto investment.
To give you a real-world example: some time ago I needed some help and posted a message asking which admins were online at the time. I was contacted directly by someone purporting to be an admin. I did my due diligence by checking his user-name and display name against the list of admins displayed on the group’s pinned message. It checked out; or at least I thought it did. To cut a long story short, I was requested to transfer funds to a new wallet address whilst he/she arranged a refund due to an error I made. This is when I got suspicious. I tried to contact other admins directly in the group, but they had blocked any direct contact due to the deluge of messages they were receiving at the time.
I had no way to confirm he/she way legitimate or not.
I had a brainwave and decided to copy both the potential scammer and legitimate admin user-names into Microsoft Word. I converted both user-names to capital letters and it was then that I realized the scammer had used a capital letter ‘I’ instead of a lower case ‘l’ within the name. The 2 letters look almost identical when displayed in Telegram.
The below example (not the real name ) shows how similar the user-names were:
I was lucky not to fall for it. This episode highlights just how easy it is for scammers to masquerade as legitimate admins.
In another instance, a so-called admin tried to prove him/herself to me by sending an email from the domain name used for the ICO. I checked the headers of the email (source code) and could easily see that although the logo and sending address were correct, they had spoofed it by sending it from a different domain name.
These guys seem to be getting better at this and whilst the more seasoned investors know what to look for, I pity those less experienced in the game that are obviously losing 1,000s of dollars.
So what are Telegram doing about this? ….from what I have seen….nothing. They could easily implement a verified status similar to Twitter or make the sign up process more stringent. At the moment, if you report a scammer as spam, they can easily just start up again using a different mobile number or wait for the block period to expire and start all over again.
This is major challenge to the crypto industry that seems to rely purely on experience and knowledge of the users. Telegram seem to be ignoring all calls to improve the situation.
With all this being said, things are looking up and new projects are being created that will provide a new level of comfort. For me personally, I am looking forward to a new project that just may go some way to removing this issue. I am hoping that I will no longer need to use Telegram for the majority of my crypto-related communications. DESICO is a platform which will bring a new level of comfort and security associated with ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings). ICOs will register with DESICO, and once approved, all dealings will be contained within the DESICO platform. There is no word of it yet, but there are rumors that they may also be creating a platform similar to Telegram that will be more secure and trustworthy.
As well as being governed by The Bank of Lithuania and The European Bank, DESICO will meet with all potential ICOs to ensure their business plans meet all the requirements and that their projects are sound.
A community made up of ‘trusted’ projects and investors will be born, providing a more secure platform for all crypto-investment communications.
Check out the DESICO website for more information.
And yes they have a Telegram Group too. :) but be careful in there.