Imposters on Telegram. Amazon Sellers have lost tens of thousands of dollars From This Scheme. Attention: Pavel Durov
In the last few years, I have been impersonated 1000s of times and there is not much to do on Telegram to stop it. I did report them to the authorities and on Telegram. I run the ASGTG which is a seller's group of Amazon Sellers. It stands for Amazon Sellers Group Telegram. It's the largest “group” of its kind and it was originally built on Telegram. There are 85 groups total tied together with a custom bot.
There are some groups that have a few thousand people. Lately, though its value has diminished as the platform lends itself to imposters that are stealing from people.
The scheme works like this. A user that is dormant joins the group. That same person has another user that uses a fake profile from a trusted member of that group. The fake uses all the same profile pics and credentials as the trusted person. When an unsuspecting user asks a question, the fake trusted person reaches out and offers to solicit something based on what the user needs. Because he is trusted people let their guard down.
After a few back and forths and the fake trusted Person asks for Zelle, quick pay, or some wire, and then the fake person disappears. This happens daily and loses trust in the platform.
It seems to work best on Telegram but this has also happened on WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook. Telegram, because it values privacy has this major negative and I hope you can address this. Please help us Pavel.
