Internet fraud has long been a well-known phenomenon that still cannot be overcome for many reasons. This includes anonymity, where it is easy to hide behind services that replace your real location, the use of cryptocurrencies or other financial instruments where it is impossible to track the ultimate beneficiary, and applications, i.e. special services designed to simplify life.
Internet fraud has long been a well-known phenomenon that still cannot be overcome for many reasons. This includes anonymity, where you can easily hide behind services that replace your real location , the use of cryptocurrencies or other financial instruments where it is impossible to track the ultimate beneficiary, and applications, i.e. special services designed to simplify the user’s life on the Internet.
One of these for international communication (calls and SMS) is the Telegram messenger , its main goal is to facilitate and make communication as cheap as possible (you don’t pay for SMS, calls and have a convenient chat interface) with friends, acquaintances and even just strangers who want to get to know you because they supposedly saw you in a common chat at home or in a group by interest (dancing, cars, etc.).
This is where our top list of scams begins that you can fall into without even suspecting it.
Please sign the petition for my beloved husband, brother, son, etc.
We saw an example of what this looks like in the photo above. Often, this text is accompanied by, “Hello, I see you are with us in the same chat, group, etc.” Then, scammers can press pity, that this petition is of enormous importance to their family, or that there are “very few left” or “today is the last day.” As a trusting and polite person, not wanting to refuse such a seemingly ordinary service as following the link and clicking “sign”, you follow the scammers’ instructions and fall into the most common fraudulent scheme today.
After you click on the link, you may receive a message about an alleged error and it will immediately disappear. Instead, your data, using special programs, that was in this fake link will be instantly transferred to the scammers (often these are bank card numbers, passwords, personal numbers, photos or other information contained on your phone). Sometimes there is a case when the link asks you to enter the password from your account or phone to supposedly confirm that the petition was signed by a real person, and here too there is a catch: as soon as you enter the alleged confirmation, the scammers already have your “password”.
SMS “Please help me, I urgently need 200 hryvnias by tomorrow”
This scam is the second most common on Telegram and is very related to the first one, where we wrote about passwords and transferring data from your profile (account). As soon as your friend got into trouble where scammers hacked him and got passwords from his private accounts on other social networks such as Instagram , Facebook , Telegram and others, they immediately start writing to all their contacts on his behalf and asking for small loans of 100, 200, 300 hryvnias with the promise to return it tomorrow, because now there is no electricity, no money, etc.
This amount was chosen by the scammers for a reason, since almost everyone has it on their card and it will not cause unnecessary questions “why?”, but the scammer promises to return it immediately when he gets home or the next day. It is clear that by agreeing to “help out for the day”, you receive the scammer’s card and transfer the funds , since the account belongs to your neighbor, friend, son or daughter, you know them well, so there is definitely no fraud here, but in fact it has already happened.
Account for rent for 250, 300 or 500 hryvnias
You’ve probably seen such a message in chats and groups, “we’ll rent your account” and pay you 250, 300 or 500 hryvnias per day for use ? What do many people think, and why not? I’ll take advantage of the opportunity to earn some extra money, and I don’t need the account that often or I hardly use it at all, so I’ll “agree.”
After that, you are asked to provide your login details, supposedly to verify the serviceability and compliance or for other checks. As a party to a supposedly potential deal (where after the check, if everything is “ok”, you will be paid the first advance payment for the rental), you send your passwords and… Your account is successfully stolen by scammers for all sorts of dubious transactions. Everything in this scheme is simple and is based only on your trust and desire to earn easy money (200 or 500 hryvnias a day are not lying around on the road). You provide your login details, then they make a request to change the password, you receive an SMS to change the password, you unknowingly agree, because you are renting the account to people who will pay you for it and then they simply change the password after your confirmation and disappear together with your account forever.
“Work for everyone” you need to delete comments, likes, payment – 1600 hryvnias per day
Because of the war, many people lost part of their income or even their jobs altogether, and such a job search request was wildly popular even before the war. Many criminals, understanding this and playing on the same desire to quickly and easily earn some money without getting up from the couch, offer simple work, where only a phone and Internet access are required (anyone who sees this ad at all responds to such a request, because to read it you need to go online from your own device). The main task also always sounds easier than anywhere else: putting likes or deleting negative comments (even a child can handle it).
So let’s imagine that you decided to get rich just from home, lying on the couch and at the same time gaining likes online. When you respond to the vacancy by writing a message to the scammers, they formally ask you 2-3 basic questions (do you have stable internet?; do you have a gadget from which you will put likes or delete comments? how many hours are you willing to allocate to this per day (there is no minimum number of hours, you can specify even 5 minutes and you are still their “ideal candidate”)).
That is, from the essence of the questions it is clear, this is a lure for trust and maintaining the formality of the procedure (as if you are really going through the selection as a real candidate). Questions that cannot be answered negatively if you have already previously responded to the vacancy and its conditions.
So when the scammer supposedly checked you out and realized that you have a real desire to work, he informs you about “hiring” you with a salary of 1,600 hryvnias per day (the amounts vary from 2,000, 3,000 and even 5,000 hryvnias per day if you are supposedly ready to work 20 hours). The final touch is to fill in your card details to receive payment, which will be accrued daily according to the hours spent.
You are sent a link to a website to register your card for salary, where you must enter not only the card number, but also the expiration date and the code on the back so that they can “verify” you as a real user , that is, the card owner. I think the scheme is clear from here, by providing data to scammers you immediately lose all your savings, the money on the card is simply debited for unknown purchases where it is actually transferred to scammers.
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You have been chosen as the winner! Collect your 1,000,000₴ right now!
Of course, miracles happen, but not in Telegram. Unfortunately, all of us with this war want some kind of miracle, it is always nice to receive good news, especially if it brings great hope or even good luck. You receive a message that you have been chosen as the winner here where you won a million hryvnias, and you did not even participate there and do not know anything about its holding. So this notification is not about great luck, but about the fact that they are trying to make you money in Telegram. Although this scheme is as old as the world, it still works and works successfully, and all because it has now acquired new forms.
Supposedly, the draws are from the Telegram application itself (which are indeed optionally available on this platform for certain actions, in certain channels, usually a subscription or donation, meaning you will know that you participated there and the prizes there are often much smaller). Returning to the lucky SMS where you are almost a millionaire.
All that’s left is to follow the link to claim your prize! And here’s the rub! To claim your prize on your personal card, you need to pay a commission to the platform. The commission amounts vary from a percentage of the winnings to a fixed rate, usually not significant compared to the winnings and objectively such that anyone can pay without hesitation from the balance on the card of 1000 or 1500 hryvnias.
