#ICO SCAM: Dear Telegram Admin, You can't con an honest John...or can you?

in #cryptocurrency6 years ago (edited)

CryptoScam.jpg

Scammer : Hi! Ava, Welcome to FishyICO. I am the admin. How can I help you with the registration?

Ava: ya, I have not received any registration email.

Scammer: Don't worry. Let me help you out. We are facing congestion on the network.

Ava: Thank you for your help.

Scammer: Let me offer you an additional bonus of 10 percent for the inconvenience. Please send your funds to the following address: abcdefghijklmopscrewyouhijklmopqurestwyxz .

Ava: ...............................

It is not a comic strip that you just read, but these scams are happening every day in the crypto world. It does not mean you have to steer clear but you need to be extra cautious and canny. In the next two minutes, this article will help you become just that!

Every day members of the crypto community work hard to ensure we keep pace with the fast evolving and highly dynamic market of the 21st century. Using our hard-earned money, we invest in various projects with the aim of making a profit and securing financial security for the future.

Firstly, throughout the globe, most crypto-startups rely on the Telegram platform to conduct ICOs. Telegram’s reliability, efficiency, and diversity make it a natural home for most communications between crypto companies and investors within the global crypto ecosystem. Nonetheless, scammers have flocked to the platform in numbers bearing hype and fraudulent information that is near-indistinguishable from the real thing. It may be difficult to discern these individuals from actual company representatives if you are not keen or savvy enough.

In this column, your friendly neighborhood Crypto Ninja is going to expose these crypto scammers and show you how to identify them quickly.

In the Telegram ICO groups, members/investors engage with one another and admins are present to assist.

This is where the scam begins.

For example, Andreja is a legitimate group admin for the XYZ Telegram chat. It’s her smiling emoji face that greets you each time someone new joins the group.

But imagine there’s another Andreja lurking in the chat as well. She’s not there to help new community members learn about XYZ ICO. In fact, her sole purpose is to “help” unsuspecting investors divert ETH into her wallet.

Which Andreja is the real admin and which is the scammer? Take a look at their profiles below.

pic 1.PNG

See the difference?

Well, looks to the contrary, these are two different individuals, one of whom is impersonating the other. At first glance, their names may be the same, but with a little scrutiny, you will realise that one is a fake admin while the other is real.

How do you know? Look closely at the usernames: one is @ Andrejaadmin while the other is @ Andrejadmin , with an absence of a letter ‘a’. Luckily for us, most ICOs keeps a pinned post where all the real admins are listed. That’s how we know that the first account is the real Andreja and the other belongs to a scammer.

How can you protect yourself?


  1. Keep an eye on the admin tag and the real name of the admin. Telegram automatically appends “admin” to the names of posters when they’ve been designated as such in the chat.

  2. Most ICOs follow the ' Admin will never dm you first' rule.


pic 2.PNG

I now believe you are well-versed on the ins and outs of scammers on Telegram. But don’t forget the most critical check of all - using the official ICO website to validate ETH deposit addresses before you hit send.

The new crypto ecosystem is an exciting one. Don’t allow scammers discourage you from being part of it. Nevertheless, be aware and doubt everyone. Better to be safe than OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Next time............

So, here I am your friendly neighborhood CryptoNinja who will keep bringing exciting facts and news from Crypto world to you.

Keep watching for more blogs. Haiyyaaahh!!

Spread the word!!!!!

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Hi @thecryptoninja, I'm @checky ! While checking the mentions made in this post I noticed that @andrejaadmin and @andrejadmin don't exist on Steem. Maybe you made some typos ?

If you found this comment useful, consider upvoting it to help keep this bot running. You can see a list of all available commands by replying with !help.

Hi Checky, Thank you for your support.
It doesn't exist on steemit. They're telegram handles. Hope you like the article.

hello @thecryptoninja, thanks for warning about these crypto scammers.

Welcome @diosatena.
Have a nice day !!!

Dear author, I really like your content! You’re writing in a very interesting manner!
I think my last post will also be interesting for you
https://steemit.com/ubex/@cryptofrau/ubex-artificial-intelligence-in-advertising

Please, upvote it! I’ve upvoted yours in advance.

Thanks a lot @cryptofrau.
Sure, I will read it soon. Have a nice day !

Thanks for the heads up!
i was in GCOX acm coin telegram asking for updates
Suddenly there's a person claiming he's the admin (same name and photo with the admin i talk to )giving me extra bonus
i think there's a team of scammers doing this ,be safe everyone
there's no admin will ever personally dm us!

Well said.
Most ICOs follow the ' Admin will never dm you first' rule.

Hi @thecryptoninja,

many thanks for all the time and work you put in this article.

Thumbs up and resteem for you.

Best regards

@rich.art.deluxe

Thank you!!! @rich.art.deluxe
Have a nice day !!!

thanks bro for sharing this important information about crypto

Best way to protect yourself is with MetaCert products. https://metacertprotocol.com/ and https://metacert.com/

More ICOs should install those bots to protect their Telegram/Discord/Slack users.

Thank you for adding a valuable comment, @lukestokes
It’s not every day you get a comment by a legend.

Hahah! I don't know about "legend" but I do try to add value where I can.

Excellent post and certainly needed. I also suggest reporting these scammers to Telegram as well. While that may seem like playing “wacka mole” if we all work together reporting these scammers we can help keep the numbers down across the platform and potentially give Telegram some information they need on the back end to build some sort of trend or pattern to see how they could prevent or deter this behavior.

Personally, I won’t send any “ICO” funds in this manner. A LEGIT PROJECT WILL NEVER ASK YOU TO SEND THEM FUNDS! I am not sure why that doesn’t sink into most people’s heads. Most of the legit projects will also place this fact in their telegram groups. Take the time to read any pinned message found inside any project’s Telegram group you are interested in or just joined.

Thecryptoninja deserves a lot of upvotes for this post because she or he (sorry not sure and I don’t want to use the wrong pronoun so I used both) took time out of their day to create this very informative and entertaining at the time post to warn people and give them some additional tools to protect themselves.

While I have ran out of upvote power I have posted this in one of my Telegram channels about airdrop scams here: https://t.me/airdropscams

NICE WORK!!

Thank you for taking out the time to reply and appreciate the article.

Correct, report scammers to the Telegram/admins. In many instances, the scammers are not present inside the group and contact the investors by their username.

Thank you again for adding value through your comment. Have a nice day !!!

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Brought to you by @tts. If you find it useful please consider upvoting this reply.

Thanks @tts . Pretty cool.