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Telegram prepaid task scam

2024-04-13 by

So I get contacted by scammers and or bots all the time, I guess you might be too. For me, they normally goes to

But today when Elizabeth had an offer I couldn't refuse, I wanted to check out how these operations work.

It was good entertainment and learning material while I was working on some other projects.

Here's a good explanation of these types of scams (Funnily enough written by the Assistant Bot at Quora)

The Telegram prepaid task scam is a type of scam that targets job-seekers and individuals looking for work. It involves tricking victims into paying for a fake job opportunity on Telegram, a messaging app. The scammers typically contact the victims through platforms like WhatsApp or Telegram, posing as recruiters or representatives of companies. They offer work-from-home opportunities that involve completing simple tasks in exchange for payment. However, the scam unfolds in several steps:

  • Friendly Intro: The scammers initiate contact with the victims, often using fake names and company affiliations [2]. They present themselves as recruiters or consultants and offer part-time or freelance job opportunities.
  • Earning Trust: After establishing initial contact, the scammers ask the victims to join a Telegram group where they are assigned easy tasks such as liking YouTube videos, rating businesses on Google Maps, or subscribing to certain channels [2]. The victims are paid for these tasks to gain their trust.
  • The Scam: Once the victims have completed the free tasks and gained trust, the scammers introduce prepaid tasks [2]. These tasks require the victims to deposit money with the promise of high returns. For example, they may ask the victims to pay a certain amount and promise to return a higher amount in exchange. This builds a false sense of trust and encourages the victims to invest more money.
  • Disappearance and Loss: After the victims have sent all the money, the scammers disappear, and the victims never receive any actual payment [3]. The scammers use fake identities, fake bank accounts, and fake company names to make it difficult to track and prosecute them [3].

It is important to note that scammers often use popular brand names and fake identity cards to convince victims [3]. They take advantage of the anonymity and group features of Telegram to reach a large audience quickly and easily [3]. The scammers create private groups where they add victims and provide fake earning proofs to convince them to perform prepaid tasks [3]. They can also delete chat history to prevent victims from sharing evidence of the scam [3].

To protect yourself from the Telegram prepaid task scam, it is crucial to be cautious when receiving job offers or opportunities that seem too good to be true. Research the company and individuals involved, and verify their authenticity through official channels. Never provide personal or financial information to unknown individuals or groups. If you encounter such a scam, report it to the relevant authorities to help prevent others from falling victim to it.

Learn more:
1. Several job-seekers cheated in Telegram scam, Tambaram ...
2. Beware of this Scam on Whatsapp & Telegram!
3. Petition · Stop Prepaid Task Scam on Telegram · Change.org

Some funny chats

 

TinEye is cool

And yes of course, Elizabeth is this "premium-ai-image" from freepik.com (stock photos) I guess. Also Maria Lily Grant.

Relevant X post

My take

I don't like scams, but I like spreading knowledge and doing good.

Here's a dummy wallet with some USDT in the void of digital economics where I dumped the "salary". Up for grabs 🤷

Address USDT (ETH): 0xEF9f30daA1403Ecb7ECC1d22929eEF96c4EeeB99

Mnemonic passphrase: such movie trigger myself buyer fatal vendor rail protect response search devote

Update May 2024

Just got another one, the pool is now up to $10 😂

Update late May 2024

Another, and it's more intricate, they didn't want to join the pool 😅

And yes, I report them all 👍

I wonder how advanced these people are, like, are they using AI to make bot-networks or is it a group of humans doing this 🤔

If assuming these groups knows what they're doing, and e.g. capturing information about a subscriber at a given time gives them info to link a telegram-account to a youtube-account, maybe for digital profiling, which can be sold or used. Maybe "$5 per social media connection" is just a cost these operations are paying for to create or take part of some profiling campaign.

Regarding AI safety

2024-04-02 by

I think AI-technology should be open-sourced and shared.

The alternative seems to be human greed-related outcomes, which is something I think we should avoid as a species.

Relevant videos/podcasts from DOAC;  Steven Bartlett, Mo Gawdat, Mustafa Suleyman

 

 

Fix for Heap exhaustion while migrate mysql to postgres

2024-03-30 by

Ran into multiple issues while migrating a mysql DB to postgres. Errors like

Heap exhausted during garbage collection: 352 bytes available, 416 requested.

I tried allocating more memory everywhere, but in in the end the prefetch rows finally worked for me

Example migrating mysql to postgres with prefetch:

pgloader --with "prefetch rows = 10000" mysql://user:password@127.0.0.1/dbname postgresql://user:password@127.0.0.1/dbname

Regarding Meta/Facebook account

2024-03-26 by

I don't understand Facebook. I left Meta long time ago, and whenever I try to use their services, because people wants to connect, it just roadblocks me all the way 🤦

Anyways; Twitter/X, Mastodon, Twitch, Discord, Slack, Telegram, Snap, Signal, Email, SMS etc are all useful services 🙂

Sorry for giving you another chance, Meta 🤦