50 Telegram users lose $18,000 after their accounts taken over by scammers posing as known contacts

At least 50 Telegram users lost a total of at least $18,000 this year after losing control of their accounts to scammers who tricked them into providing their handphone numbers and Telegram-generated login codes.The users would be asked to provide a screenshot of their Telegram chat history.

Alternatively, the scammer could ask the user to help the scammer locate someone on Telegram and instruct the user to search for specific usernames in their chat history, then provide a screenshot of the search results. The screenshot would invariably contain a Telegram login code. To help verify or unblock the Telegram account, the users would send a request to a Telegram handle that masquerades as a"customer service bot", which would then ask for the users’ details, such as the mobile number.

Once the scammers took over the users’ Telegram accounts, the scammers would then target the victims’ contacts to repeat the same ruse to take over their Telegram accounts or ask for money in the form of loans to perpetuate the scam.

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