Gift Sale Scam In recent days, there has been a rise in scams targeting users who own collectible gi

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.

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?”. 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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