How to Avoid the Devastating Telegram Scam Targeting Crypto Communities

one of the most important topics i cover in this article , because this Telegram scam is growing fast, and it’s one of the easiest scams of the world. That’s why I’m breaking it down for you today: to help you stay aware, protect your wallets, and safeguard your Telegram account.

If you’re part of any crypto communities, I highly encourage you to share this article on X (formerly Twitter) or even DM it to people directly. We need to share awareness to prevent more people from falling victim to this scam. If you’re a developer or project owner, sharing this with your community is crucial. Not only does this protect your investors, but it also safeguards your project from potential damage—like what happened to mine when this scam hit.

What’s This Scam All About?

This scam revolves around a fake “Safeguard Verify” bot. Safeguard is a legitimate bot many communities use to keep spam bots out of their private groups. so, when you join a public group, you’ll see a “Tap to Verify” prompt to prove you are human before gaining access to the main community.

Here’s where the scam gets clever: scammers mimic this exact process. They send fake “Tap to Verify” messages in active groups, hoping people will click without thinking. If you fall in it, you’ll get booted out of your Telegram account, and the scammers will take it over.

How to Spot the Scam

The biggest red flag is a “forwarded from Safeguard” message. Scammers can easily copy the Safeguard name and icon, but they can’t hide the “forwarded” tag. If you see a “Tap to Verify” message with this tag, avoid it like the plague. If you’re a group moderator, delete and ban these messages immediately—they’re the starting point of the scam.

Why This Scam Is So Dangerous

Once scammers take over your Telegram account, they target any trading bots connected to your wallet. For example, if you use bots like Bonk or Sol Trading, they can access your wallet’s private keys. With this keys, they can transfer all your funds to their own wallet and sell them instantly.

I will show you how this works, let’s say I’m a scammer who’s taken over your account. I’d search for your trading bots, open the wallet settings—your private keys are right there. I need to copy those keys, paste them into my wallet, and drain your funds.

How to Protect Yourself

Here are two critical steps to safeguard your wallet and Telegram account:

1. Secure Your Trading Bots
   If you use trading bots like Sol Trading, go into their settings and check your connected wallets. Remove these coins you are not trading, and transfer them to your secure wallet. While losing a few tokens might not be the end of the world.
2. Enable Two-Step Verification on Telegram
   Many people don’t know about two-step verification of Telegram. Go to account settings, set up a strong password, add an extra layer of security. This makes it much harder for scammers to take over your account.

A Quick Note About My Channel

If you’re new here, welcome! My channel documents my journey creating a meme coin called HOD, the leader of the Cat Cartel ecosystem. We recently launched a game on iOS, and I’m super excited about it. HOD is the star, and I’m sharing all the progress along the way. If that sounds interesting, consider subscribing and giving this article a like—it’s a huge encouragement for me to keep creating content for the crypto community.

Final Thoughts

Scams like this are a harsh reality of how important it, is to stay updated in the crypto space. sharing this information, we can help to protect each other and make it harder for scammers to succeed.

This article is helpful, please share it with your communities. Let’s work together to keep crypto safe for everyone.

Catch you in the next one—stay safe out there!