Experts outline new scheme to steal Telegram channels

Fraudsters began hijacking popular Telegram channels via bots. This is reported by «Известия».

After an influx of bots, the owner of a popular channel typically closes it for a while so as not to lose advertisers. At this moment, the attackers assume the victim’s nickname.

“Most often the channel is then used for advertising cryptocurrencies,” note specialists in the field of SMM.

The number of such attacks rose in January 2023. One of the victims was the owner of a Telegram channel with 20,000 subscribers, Evgenia Timerbaeva.

“I didn’t notice the boost right away. As soon as I looked at the statistics, I decided to close the channel for a few days, and when I reopened it I found that my nickname was already taken,” she said.

A similar story was shared by the owner of a Telegram channel with 16,000 subscribers, Vera Churina.

Information security specialists said that selling an already established blog could fetch around 300,000 rubles.

Earlier, ForkLog reported that ESET researchers discovered a fake Shagle app, which is a trojanised version of the Telegram app for Android with a backdoor added to the code.

Read ForkLog’s Bitcoin news in our Telegram — cryptocurrency news, prices and analysis.