New fraud scheme on Telegram: Scammers steal accounts and crypto wallets

Experts from Kaspersky Lab have discovered a new scheme for stealing Telegram accounts and cryptocurrency from Russian-speaking users. Using a phishing bot, attackers target owners of digital assets who make transactions within the messenger. The company has already registered several such fake bots.

The attackers seek out users who want to make cryptocurrency transactions through Telegram and contact them under the pretext of conducting a transaction. However, at the very beginning, the potential victim is informed that in order to increase security and comply with regulatory requirements, they allegedly need to undergo verification, otherwise, their crypto wallet will be frozen. They are asked to do this through a special "authorization" service, to which the scammers send a link. In reality, this is a phishing bot where the user is asked to log in with their Telegram account.

To do this, they are asked to disable two-factor authentication in the messenger and confirm this action by clicking the appropriate button. After that, they need to provide the authorization code for Telegram, which will be sent from the official service.

In fact, all of this is necessary to steal the victim's account in the messenger and gain the ability to make transactions on their behalf. Through the Telegram account, the scammers gain access to the user's Telegram Wallet cryptocurrency wallet. As a result, there is a risk of losing not only access to the account but also the cryptocurrency.