What counts as an impersonation scam?
Chainalysis describes impersonation as fraudsters “posing as legitimate organizations or authority figures” (Chainalysis, 13 January 2026 (opens in a new tab)). In a community, that means anyone pretending to be your support team or your mods.
The goal is usually a seed phrase, or a wallet connected to a fake site. Either one is enough to empty the wallet.
How big is the problem?
Big, and growing fast. Chainalysis says crypto scams received at least $14 billion on-chain in 2025, and says the total could pass $17 billion as more scam wallets are found. Impersonation scams grew more than 1,400% compared to 2024. The average scam payment rose from $782 in 2024 to $2,764 in 2025 (Chainalysis, 13 January 2026 (opens in a new tab)).
Those numbers measure money sent to scammers. They don’t count victims or incidents, and they cover crypto as a whole. Chainalysis doesn’t split them by Discord or Telegram.
Why do Discord and Telegram attract them?
That’s where your members talk in public, and a scammer can read every message. Coinbase calls Discord and Telegram “hotbeds” for crypto scams and says scams on both have surged in the last year (Coinbase, 4 November 2025 (opens in a new tab)). It gives no numbers for that rise.
What do these scams look like in a community?
- Fake support. A member asks a question or complains in public chat. Minutes later a DM arrives from “support”, with a fake profile picture and job title, asking for a seed phrase.
- Fake giveaways. A message says the member won tokens or an NFT. Claiming it means clicking a link or connecting a wallet.
- Hijacked admin or bot accounts. A real admin or bot account gets taken over and posts a fake announcement. One post reaches every member at once.
- Copied mods. A new account takes a mod’s name and avatar, then DMs members as that mod.
The first three come from Coinbase’s list (Coinbase, 4 November 2025 (opens in a new tab)). The last one we’ve seen in communities we moderate.
How do you shut them out on Discord?
- Say it plainly: your team never DMs first. Pin it where new members land and repeat it in your rules.
- Tell members they can turn off DMs from server members. Coinbase gives the same advice.
- Add a verification step for new members, so a fresh account can’t post the moment it joins.
- Use AutoMod to check member profiles for words you list, such as your team’s names (Discord developer docs (opens in a new tab)).
- Keep announcement rights with your core team. Fewer accounts that can post announcements means fewer accounts worth hijacking.
- Turn on 2FA for every account with mod powers. Discord lets a server owner require it for moderation actions (Discord developer docs (opens in a new tab)).
How do you shut them out on Telegram?
- Same rule: your team never DMs first. Pin it.
- Hide the member list, so members who aren’t admins only see the admins and bots (Telegram Bot API (opens in a new tab)).
- Turn on Aggressive Anti-Spam, which Telegram offers to admins of large groups (Telegram FAQ (opens in a new tab)).
- Keep admin rights to a few people, with only the rights each one needs.
How can we check your server?
Our free Community Security and Bot Audit looks at an existing Discord server the way a scammer would. We join as a normal member and need no admin access. You get a 2-page report, starting with scam and bot risk. See the sample audit.