Beware of Telegram OTC Scams Account Cloning and Human MITM

Here's a real case of OTC scam going down via Telegram account cloning and a human man-in-the-middle setup. No fancy hacking here, just some social engineering and two phones. So here's the deal: the scammer acts like an admin for an OTC exchange in Telegram groups. Once they reach an agreement on a deal, they clone the victim's Telegram profile same pic, same name, just a tiny change in the username and then link up with the actual exchange, pretending to be the client. They meet up at a legit licensed office. But all the messages are funneled through the scammer. ``` VICTIM ──→ [SCAMMER] ──→ REAL EXCHANGE ↑ | | └── 10 USDT forwarded | └── YOUR wallet replaced with HIS ``` The scammer swaps out the wallet address with their own. They send a test transaction to the victim to make it look legit. Victim thinks it’s all good and gives the nod. Then the scammer walks away with ₽10M in USDT. Why is this so effective? People don’t pay close attention to @usernames. Meeting face-to-face adds a false sense of trust everything seems legit, and the scam plays out right there in the Telegram chat. Those test transactions give a false sense of security since the sender's address isn’t verified. Both sides follow the rules: they verify, do test transfers, and meet in a real office. The scammer just played the middleman without violating any security protocols. One simple check can prevent this: Always verify the other person's @username letter by letter before making any deals. Takes just 5 seconds. This method stops 100% of clone attacks. Some red flags to watch out for: - Admin messages you first after you post a buy/sell request - No voice or video call before any big transactions - Request for your wallet address