MetaCert Launches An Anti-Phishing Security Chatbot For Telegram Users
Telegram is rife with threat actors impersonating high profile crypto people as well as crypto group admins.
The MetaCert Security Chatbot that has been protecting over 1.3 MILLION crypto people across 1,300 groups, has just been updated for personal use.
To add MetaCert to your personal contacts, open this link; t.me/metacertbot
Private messages on Telegram are now unsafe
Threat actors have been impersonating group admins and high profile crypto people for a while. But now that MetaCert is protecting so many groups, the threat actors have upped their game with private messages — their scammy tactics are going through the roof right now.
I also have my fair share of impersonators sending private messages to members of the MetaCert community — luckily our community is well educated in regards to phishing scams. And almost all of them use our desktop and email software to protect them from phishing attacks anyway.
Look at the screen shot below, it’s a threat actor messaging me, pretending to be Tim Draper — a famous crypto investor and advocate. I can tell it’s a threat actor, but most people wont’. The best way to check is to use the MetaCert bot.
How it works for groups
If you’re an admin of a group, go to members and search for metacertbot — add it to your group as if it was a person. That’s it! 💣
The bot will remain silent until someone posts a malicious URL or wallet address — at which point it will post an alert to the group — similar to the one below. example.org has been classified as “Phishing” for the purpose of testing each of our products and services.
How it works for personal protection
It’s impossible to build a chatbot that will automatically protect your private messages in any way. But the bot is still extremely useful. You can check to see if a person is classified as a fraud, or if they have been verified by MetaCert. If a person is unverified, do more research, if they’re classified as “phishing”, report them to Telegram, and if they’re “verified” by MetaCert, you can assume they are legit.
To add the bot, simply add it as a contact like you would a person. Search for metacertbot and start a conversation. Or open this link and start a conversation. That’s it!
Commands
The bot only understands one command; /check. That single command is extremely powerful. Let’s say you get a message and it looks like it’s from me, do the following:
/check t.me/paulwalsh
You must include t.me and you can include or exclude the ‘@’ symbol.
How much does it cost?
Nothing. It’s completely free.
All I ask is that you recommend MetaCert to friends and colleagues. And you give us a shout out on Twitter twitter.com/metacert 🙏
👉 And share this post.
You can check to see if the bot is installed in your favorite community by posting example.org to the group — if you get an alert it means you’re safe. If nothing happens you should kindly ask an admin to consider installing it. They have nothing to lose. But be nice and don’t spam them. Whether they add it or not, please respect their decision. I’ve heard of people demanding MetaCert to be installed, please don’t do that. ❤️
Anti-phishing protection for your desktop computer
Installing one of our add-ons is probably the best way to remain safe when using your computer. MetaCert makes it virtually impossible for you to fall for a phishing scam — not just crypto related either.
It will protect you when opening links to mainstream sites such as Dropbox, Salesforce and anything else you’re likely to be concerned about. It blocks know malicious sites, but more importantly, the MetaCert shield on the toolbar will turn green whenever you visit a verified URL. This is important because 90% of all data breaches start with phishing and 93% of all phishing sites display the browser padlock. 🤪
Mobile email protection
We’ve built the world’s first security solutions for native email apps, including iOS Mail and Samsung Email. You can get started here. Support for all other clients is on the roadmap. If you’re concerned about phishing, you’ll probably move to iOS or Samsung after you see how it works.
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