Woburn, MA – April 19, 2018 – Kaspersky Lab researchers have uncovered dozens of highly convincing fake websites claiming to be investment sites for an initial coin offering (ICO) by the Telegram messaging service. Many of these websites appear to belong to the same group. In one case alone, tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency were stolen from victims believing they were investing in ‘Grams,’ Telegram’s rumored new currency. Telegram has not officially confirmed an ICO and has warned people about fraudulent investor sites.

In late 2017, stories began circulating that the Telegram messaging service was launching an ICO to finance a blockchain platform based on its TON (Telegram Open Network) technology. Unverified technical documentation was posted online, but there appears to have been no confirmation from Telegram itself. The resulting confusion seems to have allowed fraudsters to capitalize on investor interest by creating fake sites and stealing large sums of money.

Kaspersky Lab researchers have discovered dozens of such sites, possibly belonging to the same group, claiming to sell tokens for ‘Grams’ and inviting investors to pay with cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, lice litecoin, dash and Bitcoin dash. A record of transactions on one site revealed that the scammers were able to steal at least $35,000 worth of Ethereum from investors.

The researchers found that some of the websites were so convincing, that even after Telegram and others began to issue warnings, they were still able to recruit potential investors. Most use a secure connection, require registration and generate a unique online wallet for each new victim, making it harder to track the money.

Judging by the content of the fake websites, it appears they may have common ownership. For example, several have the exact same ‘Our Team’ section.

“ICOs are a fairly risky investment and many people don’t yet fully understand how they work, so it is not surprising that high quality fake websites, with seemingly reassuring features such as a secure connection and registration, are successful at luring people in,” said Nadezhda Demidova, lead web content analyst, Kaspersky Lab. “People wishing to invest in an ICO would do well to check with the company behind it and make sure they know exactly who they are giving their money to, or they may never see it again.”

Kaspersky Lab offers the following advice for users considering investing in an ICO:

• Check for warning signs: For example, some of the fake Telegram ICO websites had the same wrong image next to the name of Telegram’s Chief Product Officer.
• Do your homework: Always check with the brand’s official site to verify the legitimacy of the investment site and, if necessary, contact the company’s ICO teams before investing any money or currency.
• Use reliable security solutions such as Kaspersky Internet Security and Kaspersky Internet Security for Android, which will warn you if you try to visit fake internet pages.