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Alexandre Masmejean, CEO of Showtime, a crypto marketplace for creators, wrote on X on Monday, Dec. 4, 2023, that FBI agents from the Los Angeles department called him and saved him from a crypto scam.

According to him, the FBI agents strongly advised him to turn off his WiFi, rotate his wallets, change all his passwords, move all files to a hard drive, and entirely wipe out his compromised MacBook.

He said, 

“I was the target of Asian cybercriminals who got a malware running on my computer, I was told [by the FBI], and was strongly encouraged to turn off my WiFi, rotate my wallets, change all my passwords, move my files to a hard drive and entirely wipe out my compromised MacBook.”

My experience with the FBI: a wake-up call to public-facing crypto people.

“Hey, are you Alexandre Masmejean, CEO of Showtime Technologies, Inc? This is the FBI calling in from Los Angeles.”

Last week I had a very strange call that surprised me so much I didn’t know whether I… pic.twitter.com/5TgkCcKfgr

— Alex Masmej 🪙 (@AlexMasmej) December 3, 2023

As the allure of decentralized platforms and blockchain-based financial instruments grows, so does the ingenuity of malicious actors seeking to exploit the vulnerabilities within this burgeoning ecosystem. But the FBI was at watch this time around.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) emerged as a guardian against the rising tide of Telegram scammers targeting unsuspecting individuals in the decentralized finance (DeFi) market.

Masmejean stated he realized his computer had been hacked after downloading software supplied in the form of a video link from a fraudster on Telegram impersonating Chao Deng, Head of HashKey Singapore Group, after verifying the callers’ identity with the FBI Los Angeles office.

According to recent reports, scammers are increasingly attempting to steal data and crypto by posing as venture capital firms.

Avichal Garg, co-founder of Electric Capital, warned the crypto community about the new strategy, claiming that scammers are organizing meetings and “asking people to send them money before investing.” The CEO of Electric Capital emphasized that the Palo Alto-based company “will never ask you to send money before receiving an investment.”

See Also: Fake Elon Musk YouTube Streams Lead To $165k Crypto Scam

Telegram Crypto Scams

Telegram, one of the most popular messaging services in the world, is frequently used in the crypto field because of its privacy protections and rich community features such as channels and groups. 

However, because of its broad reach, it has become a target for scammers looking to steal personal or financial information from unsuspecting users.

Scammers have spread so widely on Telegram that becoming a victim of at least one is nearly unavoidable. While their deceptive promises may appear alluring, anything that appears to be too good to be true usually suggests a fraud. 

After impersonification — fake admin accounts discussed above, the industry is left to deal with:

Crypto Giveaways: Scammers frequently use fake Telegram giveaways to dupe users. They pose as representatives from crypto exchanges and demand banking information, personal information, wallet access, or a fee. 

Remember that true giveaways always necessitate some form of activity on your part. If you did not enter a giveaway, it is most likely a sham.

Phishing with Telegram bots: Telegram bots use natural language processing and artificial intelligence to have realistic conversations. They can be very persuasive, making it difficult to tell if you are being duped. 

Bots are used by hackers to contact consumers and encourage them to provide personal information, bank account logins, passwords, and even two-factor authentication (2FA) tokens.

See Also: Safe Wallet Users Lost $2 Million To Scammers In One Week

Fake Telegram channels and groups: Scammers frequently create fake Telegram channels that resemble trustworthy crypto project channels. 

They use names, profile images, and pinned messages that are identical to the actual ones, and their administrators have usernames that are quite similar to the real ones. 

These channels are typically configured to “broadcast only,” which means that users cannot send messages in the conversation. 

These accounts frequently promote giveaways, prizes, pre-launch token sales, and other fraudulent offerings.