Telegram Scams: Biggest Threats and How to Avoid Them

Introduction to Telegram scams

Fast growing Telegram has over 950 million active users, and these days has become a hot bed for scammers. These Telegram scammers are using different tactics to get money from the users, or to obtain their information. Identity theft, loss of financial money, emotional distress etc., could all be a consequence.

If, however, you wish to protect yourself from them, it is fundamental that you know of the different types of Telegram scams and how you will discern them. In most cases, the scammers have unsolicited messages creating fake Telegram accounts or fake Telegram channels intended for ensnaring later victims. However, if you are careful, you will never become a victim of these scams, and you will be able to protect your Telegram account and your personal info.

A message from the shadows

At the age of 28, Julia from London had joined a crypto trading group on Telegram in late 2023. The platform is very susceptible to crypto scams. He told the admin he was giving 5x returns on your Bitcoin investment and he’s a financial advisor, etc. In the group there buzzed success stories and screenshots of happy clients. Encouraged, Julia transferred £5,000. Within days, the group vanished. All the admins disappeared, and reply to Julia’s messages was no more. She wasn’t alone.

This is present day enchantment, by all accounts. The extent to which Telegram encourages openness has heated it up for Julia’s type of scams, riding on the trust between witness and unwitting user. Scammers pretend to be investment firms as they promise high returns and with fake data to steal your money and personal information.

Types of Telegram scams

In Telegram, there are many types of scams with their own modus operandi. For example, personalized scam, which would be impersonation, where scammers create fake accounts, fake Telegram accounts or fake Telegram channels in order to impersonate legitimate entities in order to convince their users to send money or to share their sensitive information.

Here are the most common Telegram scams:

👾Frauds giveaway: You win a lottery or smartphone by a draw, or get in addition 100,000 crypto. However, if you wish to claim it, you can pay ‘processing fee’ or share your personal details. These users impersonate celebrities or trusted brands and then in exchange of fake giveaways, trick the users to share sensitive information. As a result, you may fall victim to malware or hijacking your account can occur with these updates or exclusive offers you followed by clicking on a malicious link.

👾Pretending to be support staff: scammers portray themselves as official Telegram support or admins of Telegram channels and ask for login password / verification code. The scammers will then claim that they are real support staff (to make you feel safe enough to open your account for them).

👾Crypto investment scams: The scammers claim to be experts with crypto bots that offer high returns. Often, users who get lured into those fake groups and fake testimonials gain the trust and once the money disappears, users would have lost whatever they paid.

👾Romance and friendship scams: scammers begin to establish a rapport with the victim only to go on to ask for money to help with an emergency or to travel. If you think you are a target, you need to secure your accounts. Because the scammers have the opportunity of misleading the people and then exploiting their trust by just having spent time building a romantic relationship with them, Telegram romance scams can be really dangerous.

👾Impersonation scams: such scans attempt to masquerade a real person such as legitimate tech support agent. Fraudsters may try scamming your payment details or login details by sending you direct messages. Tech support scams usually include a tone and voice that urges you to act without thinking much, otherwise your account will be “suspended”. Such psychological tactics make you panic and act relentlessly. Except for remote sessions, in most cases the tech support agents will contact you via the platform and will not take your payment details or the login credentials through direct messages.

👾Fake job listings: they are also common, so you need to be careful of the too good to be offered to such scam.

It is very important to be very careful about receiving junk messages and requests for your personal details. Always enable two factor authentication (2FA) on a Telegram account and never share any sensitive info with unidentified people.

Case file: The ‘VIP Group’ trap and fake Telegram channels

Membership requests were accepted by an Eastern European based scam ring through the channels they set up to advertise dozens of exclusive NFT drops due to start, as soon as early 2024. The same scams were prevalent in many Telegram groups, so even the users could not identify the authentic sources. They did claim that they were a part of top crypto companies and provided limited users the pre-sale access by transferring Ethereum to the wallet that was listed on the page. 

The channels involved stolen logos and deep fake videos in order to seem legit. Many well known personalities and brands were impersonated to impersonate famous personalities and brands to deceive users, using scam accounts. More than 1,000 users had lost money before the scam was exposed.

Red flags: Unsolicited messages

Here are the tell-tale signs that you are in the scam zone: 

🚩Urgency threat and need to act quickly.

🚩Requests for entering in private key, password, or one time code

🚩Too-good-to-be-true offers

🚩Lack of verifiable info or official links

🚩Poor grammar and unusual phrasing

🚩Fake links that could be involved in phishing scams.

🚩Impersonation of support staff: The scammer impersonates someone he/she is not (an employee of a company) in order to fool you.

Tips to stay safe on Telegram

Being a tech wizard is not necessary to protect yourself. Just follow these tips:

🌟A good account security means to turn on two factor authentication (2FA).

🌟Always don’t click on unknown links especially received from strangers or bots.

🌟Eavesdropping is not limited to Telegram, don’t share personal or financial account info.

🌟If something feels ‘off’ to you, chances are this is the case and you should leave suspicious groups and channels.

🌟Trust later, check first: Put your faith in it after you have verified. Check with the official sources in order not to be fooled.

Reporting and recovering from scams

If you fall to a Telegram scam, take some measures soon enough to stop the loss. Also report the scam to @notoscam on Telegram or [email protected], or just turn the scam into Telegram’s support team and give as much information about the scam as possible (screenshots, etc.). You can, however, ask your bank for a refund, but you won’t get the money back (the money lost). Go to Telegram, change your password and turn on 2FA to stop the bad person from having access again. 

But even if you decide to use dating apps or social media accounts, you should be careful as scammers might use such platforms in order to make their victims loosen their tongues and divulge some personal information. It applies even more if you are to provide sensitive information to the company, if a company will not accept sensitive information from you in some way that permits for a reasonable degree of control, whether it’s legit or not, it does not matter. In case you are vigilant and follow / take necessary precautions, then there is a chance that you can save yourself from Telegram Scams and save your personal information.

How VPN helps to strengthen your defense from Telegram scams

If you use a VPN such as VeePN, you will have advantage of Telegram security in the following:

It makes it just a tad harder for scammers to geolocate or track you by masking your IP address.

No matter which public WiFi you are using, your data is encrypted with AES 256-bit encryption. 

Accessibility to global news and groups and accessing them safely is no problem.

It prevents tracking: It blocks the trackers and phishing sites.

You need to use some protective measures like a VeePN to safeguard your personal information, due to the high scam numbers on a Telegram app.

Why choose VeePN for a safe Telegram use

VeePN provides top-tier protection for such Telegram users. Since you can’t protect yourself against the Internet scams and identity thefts and many other sort of scams you really need to protect your personal info. VeePN offers you such advantages as:

🛡️AES-256 encryption

🛡️No Logs policy 

🛡️Automatic Kill Switch 

🛡️2,500+ servers in 89 locations

🛡️Easy setup on all major devices

How to set up VeePN for secure use of Telegram

1. Download and install VeePN
2. Choose a server and connect
3. Enjoy chatting securely with Telegram.

But being truly safe and avoiding Telegram app scams is only possible when the channels you’re subscribed to are really legit and you don’t share your personal details with strangers online.

Be smart and safe with VeePN

Telegram has become terrible free range for scammers, while the way of communication in the app is very powerful. Where Julia’s story and so many others show… vigilance will not be a negotiable item! On the platform in particular, there are numerous scams such as fake channels, impersonation schemes, and phishing attempts. Be wise and use your intuition, but stay protected by using VeePN in your defense at your digital battlefield.

Download VeePN today and enjoy a 30-day money-back guarantee!

Written by VeePN Research Lab VeePN Research Lab is dedicated to provide you latest posts about internet security and privacy.

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