Increased Cases of Gift Fraud on Telegram

Scammers are using a new scheme to deceive users when selling gifts on Telegram.

Key points:
• Scammers buy a gift, upgrade it, and sell it through a marketplace or directly.
• After the sale, a refund is requested, and the gift is returned without upgrades.
• The buyer is left without the gift and the spent funds.
• Both legal methods and stolen cards are used for refunds.
• The scheme affects both TON and USDT transactions through the @tonnel_network_bot bot, as well as direct purchases.

The bot's author commented on the situation:

Such cases have indeed occurred. If I'm informed about such an incident, I block the violator's account. In my opinion, Telegram should not lower the level of these gifts upon return. Even if I prohibit such deals in the bot, people will make them directly, which will lead to the same problems and, probably, to an increase in fraud in direct deals.

It's worth noting that this has happened only 5 or 6 times out of more than 100,000 transactions, so at the moment it's not a serious problem. However, I can't predict how the situation will change after recent updates.

Important to note: The problem is related to the possibility of refunds in the Telegram system, not the operation of the @tonnel_network_bot. The bot only provides a platform for transactions and is not responsible for the actions of scammers.

The @infotonen editorial team also reminds that trading through the Getgems platform is considered safer in this regard. After 21 days from the transaction, it's no longer possible to request a refund, which significantly reduces the risk of such fraud.