Qtum’s official telegram channel is one of our most popular social media sites. It is great for chat and troubleshooting with our very knowledgeable administrators. Unfortunately, this channel also attracts some impersonators and scammers who present themselves in direct messages to users, especially new members, helpfully offering assistance and trying to scam them out of their coins.
This blog will show you ways to spot these impostors and avoid being scammed by them on Telegram. More advanced scammers will build elaborate Telegram groups or websites, copying other channel’s branding, filling them with fake accounts, and tantalizing offers which are scams.
Qtum wants to keep our user community safe from these imposters and scammers and we explain in this blog how to spot these bad actors.
The Rise Of Telegram Crypto Scams
As Yahoo Finance puts it, Telegram has become “a haven” for crypto fraud activities. The classic cartoon shows a picture of a dog at a computer saying “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog”. It is hard to tell imposters from the real thing, unless you follow the tips below.
Scammers will periodically create a realistic-looking Telegram group or website, copying all the graphics and branding from legitimate sites. They may add you to that Telegram group, depending on your Telegram settings.
One thing to look for if you find yourself added to a new Telegram channel that purports to be an active cryptocurrency channel is whether you can enter a message or is it a broadcast-only channel? Even if the channel appears to have many members who are enthusiastically chatting about getting prizes and rewards (these users are called “shills”) if you can’t enter a message that should be a warning. A broadcast channel will show the loudspeaker icon (shown here with the red border) and only offer Mute and Unmute, not a place to enter a message.
If you get added to an unexpected imposter channel, please report the channel and exit. Even better, you can set Telegram to allow your account to be added to a group or channel only by your contacts. Go to Settings -> Privacy and Security -> Groups & channels and set Group invite settings/WHO CAN ADD ME to “My contacts”.
Qtum Admins Never DM First
Telegram offers two ways to chat:
● Messaging in groups where there can be many users all chatting together in the group.
● Direct messaging (also called private message or inbox) for a private one-on-one chat with another user.
Direct messaging is one of the main ways that scammers reach out to Telegram users. They do not even have to list their user account in the main chat group. Instead, they can use a secondary account in the main chat group to notice when new users show up or users that are having some technical questions and then use their scam account with a direct message to those users.
Qtum avoids this issue since our admins never initiate direct chats with users. If a user has a question or a problem that needs some individual help, our admins will always begin with a chat in the main channel. If the issue can’t be settled there, only then will our admins ask the user for a direct message private chat.
So, if a Qtum admin allegedly messages you directly on Telegram, then assume that it’s an impersonator looking to scam you. The best way to detect imposters by is looking closely at their username.
Spotting The Scammers
Here we can see what a user profile looks like an example admin account. We’ll use a screen name of “Super Tech Support” and a username of “@SuperTechSupport88” with the profiles as shown on the Telegram desktop app and mobile app:
A few things to note here:
● There is a profile picture an impostor can easily copy.
● There is a bio that an impostor can easily copy.
● There is a Username that can’t be copied.
Now, let’s play a little game of spotting the imposters. Can you see why these are imposter accounts before we explain the answer?
Pay particular attention to the Username because this is where impersonators and scammers will try and trick you. Is this profile for the same admin?
As you can see, the Username has a spelling change (“Tich” instead of “Tech”). This is someone trying to impersonate user “SuperTechSupport88”.
Here is another example.
Again, you can see a misspelling in the Username with “Suqqort” instead of “Support.” This one can be hard to spot since “p” and “q” look similar at first glance.
How about this next one, are they an admin?
Of course not, the screen name, here “Super Tech Support admin” could be any text, and someone calling themselves an admin in their screen name should be immediately suspect.
Finally, this is the hardest one. Can you see the problem with this profile?
Here the imposter has put the legitimate username in their bio and left their username blank. This is hard to spot because “SuperTechSupport88” is there, it just isn’t the username for this account.
Bonus Topic: Discord Scammers
On Discord, it is pretty simple to spot the imposter account because the 4-digit Discord tag is unique. Below is the legitimate user “SuperTechSupport8888” and a scam profile. Can you spot the difference?
Discord usernames get a unique 4-digit tag appended. It is impossible to copy the tag, so it is easy to check 8888 vs. 8880.
How Do Scams Work?
These impersonators use various tricks and time pressure to offer wallet help or present some special offer for a limited time. The idea is to make you act to make a quick decision
More importantly, you should never do any transaction for crypto or expose or provide your private keys, your password, or your recovery words on social media. The odds are very high that you’ll be scammed. Scammers can create elaborate and realistic sites for contests. Anything that asks you to send coins is a scam. Scammers can create elaborate “wallet recovery” or “tech support” sites. Anything that asks you to enter your seed words or private keys is a scam. Private keys or seed words should only be entered in official wallets obtained from official sites.
Another common scam offers that if you send coins, they will send more back, for example, if you send 10 coins, they will send you 20 back. This offer is always a scam.
What To Do In These Situations?
● If you are approached in a direct message by someone offering help with your wallet, always ask them to respond or talk in the main group.
● Take a screenshot of their profile and send it to a real admin in a direct message or post in the main group and ask for confirmation.
● Check their profile and see if they are a member of the main group. If they aren’t, then they are probably an impersonator.
Protect yourself from these imposters with their scams and stay safe online.
