Telegram ICO Phishing

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Telegram

Telegram had announced plans to launch a large ICO in early 2018. A number of prominent fraudulent websites cropped up allowing users to purchase the upcoming GRAM tokens. All of these sites were fake and took user's money. One of the sites was clever enough to generate a unique address for each user, making it much easier to get away with their funds. There is no report of any funds having been recovered that were taken.

The country for this case study is not yet known.

About Telegram

"Founded by Russian entrepreneurs Pavel and Nikolai Durov who cashed out of their social media company VKontakte to the tune of $300 million, Telegram is a secure messaging app that competes with the like of WhatsApp." "Chat app Telegram’s upcoming ICO promises to break records with a target raise of $1.2 billion, which may be extended to $2 billion according to new reports."

"Telegram has no viable business model, as it makes no money – on purpose." In fact, Pavel Durov covers all its expenses out of his own pocket. “Pavel Durov, who shares our vision, supplied Telegram with a generous donation, so we have quite enough money for the time being,” claims the FAQ on the Telegram web site. “If Telegram runs out, we will introduce non-essential paid options to support the infrastructure and finance developer salaries. But making profits will never be an end-goal for Telegram.”

“Secure messaging should be free for everyone. Displaying ads alongside your private communication seems out of place, even immoral,” according to Pavel Durov. “We’re aiming to set a higher standard for messaging technologies, to raise the bar of communication in terms of speed, security and versatility.”

"According to multiple sources which have spoken to TechCrunch, the “Telegram Open Network” (TON) will be a new, ‘third generation’ blockchain with superior capabilities, after Bitcoin and, later, Ethereum paved the way."

"News of Telegram Open Network (TON), the Telegram ICO project, first broke in the final weeks of December before TechCrunch reported exclusively on the full details." “Telegram is already the de facto communication channel for the global cryptocurrency community, making a natural home to its own coin and Blockchain,” TechCrunch’s Josh Constine and Mike Butcher wrote.

"The more popular the project, the greater the number and the higher the quality of the fakes." "At the center of this frenzy is one upcoming ICO, whose purported $2 billion valuation dwarfs all others – Telegram." "Telegram’s ICO currently holds the record for investments raised."

"The company plans to raise a staggering $1.2 billion in total, starting with a $600 million pre-sale that’s strictly for traditional venture capital backers and those inside its executive’s close circles. That first stage is running from January to February by invite-only, according to the letters sent to selected participants that were viewed by TechCrunch."

"Following the pre-sale, the firm plans to hold a public sale in March which will allow retail investors to enter. The public sale is pegged at $600 million, which would make the overall ICO worth $1.2 billion. That blows any other token sale out of the water, and it would easily surpass the current record of $257 million raised by Filecoin in September."

"We found dozens of phishing resources exploiting this event, some of which looked very professional indeed." "[N]umerous web sites, including gramtoken.io, tgram.cc, ton-ico.com, ton-gram.io, grampreico.com, tgram.cc, gramtoken.tech and others have arisen."

"[O]ne – gramtoken.io – purportedly collected more than $5 million before going dark, according to TechCrunch." "Gramtoken.io was the most prominent fake. The website, which is now offline, used details extracted from the whitepapers including project roadmap, team members and more. It even posted a copy of the whitepaper — which, again, had been leaked already — to give a sense of authenticity. The site’s tracker purported to have ‘raised’ more than $5 million before it went dark last Wednesday."

"Another fake #facebook SCAM Ad for Telegram ICO $TON. There is NO ICO yet! You will lose your money! GRAMTOKEN.IO is fake!"

"In the case of one website, Ton-gram.io, more than 70 people have invested over $30,000 in Ethereum, according to a wallet address connected to the website."

"Of the rest of the fakes, ton-gram.io, grampreico.com and tgram.cc remain online, Gramtoken.tech is offline, while a number of Facebook Pages, including one for Gramtoken.io, were taken private or removed after being called out as scams."

"What’s more, the wallet addresses for victims to transfer money were created individually for each “investor,” making it harder to track the funds."

"Attention: Telegram publishes its official announcements only at https://telegram.org. Everything else is most likely scam." "If you see or receive offers to "buy Grams", let us know."

The country for this case study is not yet known.

The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.

Include:

• Known history of when and how the service was started.
• What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
• What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
• Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
• Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
• How were people recruited to participate?
• Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.

Don't Include:

• Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
• Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.

There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.

The Reality

This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:

• When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
• Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
• How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
• Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.

What Happened

The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.

Key Event Timeline - Telegram ICO Phishing

Date	Event	Description
January 16th, 2018 12:11:00 AM MST	Main Event	Expand this into a brief description of what happened and the impact. If multiple lines are necessary, add them here.

Total Amount Lost

The total amount lost has been estimated at $5,000,000 USD.

How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?

Immediate Reactions

How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?

Ultimate Outcome

What was the end result? Was any investigation done? Were any individuals prosecuted? Was there a lawsuit? Was any tracing done?

Total Amount Recovered

There do not appear to have been any funds recovered in this case.

What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?

Ongoing Developments

What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?

Individual Prevention Policies

No specific policies for individual prevention have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as an individual, check our Prevention Policies for Individuals guide.

Platform Prevention Policies

Policies for platforms to take to prevent this situation have not yet been selected in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as a financial service, check our Prevention Policies for Platforms guide.

Regulatory Prevention Policies

No specific regulatory policies have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of regulatory policies that can prevent loss, check our Prevention Policies for Regulators guide.