Spoofing telephone numbers and committing financial crime by taking control of somebody else’s personal computer are among the techniques recommended on the encrypted app, Telegram, in public channels encouraging electronic thievery.
Telegram is an encrypted messaging platform known in recent times for being a hive of activity for extremist movements - but the messaging app is also home to the kind of scruff that chases easy money and seduces people to commit fraud.
Banking Day revealed earlier this year that Telegram was being used as a hawking platform for those wanting to sell counterfeit currency. Vendors of dodgy dollars also encouraged their potential purchasers to get the fake notes circulating through the financial system.
Further investigation has found a litany of public channels with tips on how to commit credit card fraud and identify theft to get easy money without being detected.
There are a series of channels using the term ‘Fraud Bible’ in their channel header with one such channel proclaiming that people can use remote desktop protocol to commit what fraudsters call ‘carding’.
‘Carding’ is a form of credit card fraud that involves the use of stolen credit card details to purchase gift cards from department stores which are then used to purchase goods for later sale.
Why do the fraudsters say they use the remote desktop protocol? “We use it for stay (sic) anon and safety,” these Telegram posters claim. “In one word you will use someone’s pc for carding instead of your own.”
This same channel offers instructions to users on how to ‘card’ or steal from well-known companies such as Amazon.
Another channel is equally brazen and offers tips on how to steal from computer retailers such as HP and Lenovo as well as giants such as Nike and Walmart.
There is also a channel with more than 126,000 subscribers that sets out how to use stolen credit or debit cards to buy bitcoin rather than engaging in ‘carding’ and having to launder funds through gift cards to buy goods.
This particular poster on the public channel advocating the purchase of bitcoin recommends that users get themselves a virtual private network (VPN) and use remote desktop protocols.
The instructor of the dark art of fraud in this context asserts they have found two particular cryptocurrency trading platforms that use no verification and, according to these self-styled criminal masterminds, one in particular permits purchases of bitcoin of up to $5000 daily without verification.
It also worth noting that the publicly accessible number of subscribers to certain channels on Telegram is not an indication of how many people may view it. A channel that has 5,000 subscribers, for example, has 5,000 people that will get their alerts when items are posted.
That does not mean that the channel is not visited by other people because any users can view the contents of a public channel without following or subscribing to it.