Stay Safe on Telegram: How to Identify and Avoid Scammers

In the dynamic and expansive Telegram community, a challenge you might face is encountering impersonators and scammers. These individuals often masquerade as official staff members, reaching out via direct messages to deceive unsuspecting users.

Recognizing Official Staff

Our official staff members typically include "Won't PM you first" in their usernames. This is a critical security measure indicating that our team members will never initiate private or direct messages with you. Always remember: if you need assistance, it's up to you to reach out to us first.

Common Tactics of Impersonators

To help you better understand and recognize these fraudulent tactics, here are some documented examples of impersonators who have previously targeted our users:

Be cautious if you notice a new contact, especially if they appear to be an admin, reaching out first. A significant red flag is when you share few or no common groups with them, as scammers often lack shared community connections.

A direct message from an unknown individual should always trigger caution. Remember, we have no business in contacting you first and will adhere strictly to this policy.

How to Verify Authenticity

If you're ever uncertain about the legitimacy of a contact claiming to be part of our staff, here’s how you can verify:

1. Check Their Profile: Open the chat and click on their name to view more details.
   • Username: Scammers might not have a username or use incorrectly formatted ones.
   • Shared Groups: Genuine staff members will have groups in common with you. Scammers usually don’t.

The Username Trick

Scammers often exploit similarities in usernames to deceive. For instance, consider these variations:

1. Cryptowally - Authentic
2. CryptowalIy - Impersonator
3. CryptowaIly - Impersonator
4. CryptowaIIy - Impersonator

Though they look identical, subtle differences exist, such as replacing lowercase 'L' with uppercase 'I'. Tools like convertcase.net can help distinguish these variations.

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Remember, our team members will never message you first.

Reporting Impersonators

If you encounter an impersonator, report them to notoscam, Telegram's anti-scam support bot. They will take necessary actions against the fraudulent account.

Common Scamming Techniques

Beware of anyone asking you to:

• Send ETH or other currencies for license validation.
• Pay for a license key change.
• Validate your ETH Wallet with a third-party dApp.

These are all deceptive tactics. Remember, license validations and key changes never require additional payments.

Stay vigilant and protect yourself from these deceptive practices. If you have any doubts, reach out to us directly.