SlowMist Alerts Crypto and Web3 Community About the Prevailing Telegram Scams

The growing number of crypto scams is raising concerns among the community. SlowMist, a popular blockchain security platform, after recently receiving several victim reports dealing with the Telegram-centered “Fake Safeguard,” has shared a detailed guideline to secure users. The scam reportedly aims at the both newbies as well as seasoned Web3 users. Particularly, it focuses on placing malware on the computers of the users and stealing their Telegram accounts.

Beware of the Fake Safeguard Scam on Telegram!

Recently, the SlowMist security team has received numerous victim reports related to the “Fake Safeguard” scam on Telegram. This scam targets both newcomers and seasoned users in Web3. This type of scam mainly comes in two… pic.twitter.com/642jCCNZQY

— SlowMist (@SlowMist_Team) January 18, 2025

By highlighting this scam, the security platform intends to spread awareness among the users to secure them from such attacks. SlowMist has revealed the details of the prevailing scams to the crypto community through its official social media platform, X account.

Fake Safeguard Scam Targets Seasonal and New Crypto Investors on Telegram

SlowMist asserted that the “Fake Safeguard” scam leverages the Telegram users’ lack of awareness to take away their hard-earned funds. For this purpose, the scammers carry out two procedures. One of them includes stealing the Telegram accounts of the consumers. However, the other takes into account the placement of a malware on the computers of the consumers.

The blockchain security company provided a couple of examples to elaborate on these scamming methods. In one method, the scammers target the consumers during the famous token airdrops when consumers are usually experiencing FOMO. In this respect, they create fake accounts on Telegram, prompting users to verify the account.

On tapping the “Tap to Verify” button, the users are redirected to a forged Safeguard bot that appears to perform verification. The process is accomplished without taking much time, pushing consumers to proceed. Following clicking further the respective bot falsely highlights a verification failure, offering an interface for manual verification.

Tricking Victims into Unknowingly Copying Malicious Code

After that, the exploiters deliberately present 3 instructions. The 1st instruction is to open ‘Run’ on Windows by pressing “Windows + R” keys and 2nd step is copying the telegram address. Nonetheless, the users who do this unknowingly copy the malicious code into their clipboard. Subsequently, just after this process, their computer devices.

In the other method, the scammers pretend to be KOLs. They utilize fake bots to push users into performing malicious commands on Powershell. For this, they create fake accounts on X and also place Telegram links in their comments. Hence, they invite victims to join Telegram groups to get investment opportunities. The victims joining the respective channels are prompted the aforementioned steps to unknowingly infect their computers.

Keeping this in view, SlowMist advises the users to instantly withdraw funds from the wallets if they are infected. The users also need to modify the passwords and implement two-factor authentication on all the browsers and accounts. In addition to this, they also require altering credentials for the other accounts existing on the respective computer, like Telegram. By making users aware of “Fake Safeguard” scam, SlowMist reportedly endeavors to solidify their protection against such attempts.

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