**Gift Sale Scam**

In recent days, there has been a rise in scams targeting users who own collectible gifts.

**How the scam works** 
A user receives a message in a private chat that looks like an official gift purchase offer. In this message, the scammer prompts the victim to tap a button to transfer the gift to the buyer, promising that the victim will immediately receive a reward in Stars. In reality, however, the button contains a link that simply transfers the gift to another user for free.


**How to verify a purchase offer?**
Here is how you can tell a genuine gift purchase offer from a fraudulent one:

• A genuine offer is displayed in the center of the screen, whereas a fraudulent one is aligned to the left (just like regular messages from your chat partner).

 • A genuine offer contains a small image of the gift the buyer wants to purchase, the text “_The user offered you xxx  for your gift <gift_name_with_number>_”, the offer’s expiration time, and the “Decline” and “Accept” buttons. The content of a fraudulent message may differ.

 • If you change the app’s interface language to English, the text of a genuine offer will also be displayed in English. The language of a fraudulent message will not change.

 • If you press and hold the “Accept” button in a genuine message, nothing will happen. If you do the same on the button in a fraudulent message, the Telegram app will reveal the link hidden behind that button — typically, this link starts with [tg://send_gift](tg://send_gift).

Please be on alert when receiving gift purchase offers: check them carefully to avoid losing your gifts.

**How to protect yourself from risk?** 
If a gift is hidden on your profile, no one will be able to send you an official offer to buy it. To hide a gift from your profile, open your list of gifts, tap on the desired gift, and then tap the “Hide” button.

**What to do if you have already transferred the gift?**
1. It is impossible to get the gift back. You will not be able to prove to Telegram Support that you were deceived. Providing them with screenshots is pointless: they can be forged, and Telegram moderators do not have access to private chats.

2. You can report scammers to Telegram: see section 1.2 (“Report Violation”) of our article “[How to contact Telegram?](https://tginfo.me/how-to-contact-telegram-en)”. Unfortunately, a single report is usually not enough for Telegram moderators to ban a scammer’s account. Moreover, scammers typically have many backup accounts.

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