Admins will never message you first

This page is for members of a Telegram group. If an admin sent you here, the reason is simple: someone may write to you privately and pretend to be that admin. Admins who want a text to pin will find it near the end of the page.

Why do admins say they will never message you first?

Because it is the only rule that works without any checking.

A scammer can copy an admin's name and photo in a minute. Inside the group, the copy is easy to see: the real admin has a title next to every message, and the copy does not. In a private chat that title is not shown for anyone. The real admin and the copy look the same.

So the group makes a promise instead. Admins answer in the group and never start a private chat. From then on you do not need to study a profile. A private message from "an admin" that you did not ask for is false by the rule.

How does the private-message scam work?

The scammer does not break into anything. They wait for a question.

1. You ask in the group. "My withdrawal has not arrived." "The app does not accept my code." "Who can help with my order?"
2. A private message arrives within minutes. It carries the name and photo of an admin you have seen in the group. It is polite and it already knows your problem, because your question was public.
3. It offers help. Often with a ticket number, a form or a "verification" step, so that it feels official.
4. It asks for one thing. A link to open, a code to read out, a phrase to type, an app to install or a fee to pay.
5. It hurries you. "Your funds are at risk." "This ticket closes soon."

Step 4 is the whole scam. Everything before it exists to make that request feel normal.

Why so fast? The account was already in the group, silent, reading new messages. Some never joined at all and work from a list of members copied earlier. The fake admin scam guide explains that side for group owners.

How do I check who is really writing to me?

Check from the group, never from the private chat. Anything inside the private chat was set up by the person who wrote to you.

Check	How	What a copy shows
The profile	Open the profile of the account that wrote to you	A missing or strange @username, a bio full of "official" and "support"
The @username	Read it one character at a time	A zero for an o, a 1 for an l, a doubled letter, an extra underscore, an added word
The admin list	Open the group, open its list of administrators, open the admin from there	A different @username from the one that wrote to you
The group itself	Ask in the group: "Did an admin write to me privately?"	Silence in the group, pressure in the private chat

Three things make the username check reliable.

• The display name proves nothing. Anyone can type any name, and a name can use letters from another alphabet that look identical. Lookalike characters explains how.
• The @username is harder to copy. Telegram allows only a-z, 0-9 and underscores in a username, and two accounts cannot hold the same one. A copy must differ somewhere.
• The difference is small on purpose. Read the username aloud, character by character. "Zero" and "underscore" are hard to miss when spoken.

Do not use a link or a button from the private chat to "confirm" the admin. Open the group from your own chat list.

If the usernames match exactly, the message did come from that account. It is still safer to continue in the group. A real admin's account can be stolen too, and then the username is correct and the person is not.

What should I never send?

Never send	How they ask	What it gives them
The login code from Telegram	"Read me the code you just received, to verify you"	Your Telegram account
Your two-step verification password	"The system also needs your password"	The last lock on that account
A seed phrase or private key	"Enter it here to validate your wallet"	The wallet and everything in it
Remote access or a shared screen	"Install this app so I can fix it for you"	Your device, and everything open on it
A payment	"A small fee unlocks your withdrawal"	The money, and then a request for more

The login code needs a short explanation. The scammer starts a login to your account on their own device, using your phone number. Telegram then sends a code to you, in the chat named Telegram. The code they ask for is that one. This is why an innocent question such as "which phone number is on your account?" often comes first.

A QR code "to verify" does the same job as the login code. QR code scams covers it.

No support needs any of these. A real admin can answer almost every question without knowing anything secret about you.

What should I do if I already answered?

First, keep the evidence. Take a screenshot of the chat and note the @username before you block anything.

Then act on what you sent.

• Nothing but a reply. You have lost nothing. Stop answering.
• A link opened, nothing typed. Close the page. Open Settings > Devices in Telegram and check that every session is yours.
• A login code. Open Settings > Devices and end every session you do not recognise. Then set a password under Settings > Privacy and Security > Two-Step Verification. What to do when a Telegram account is hacked has the full list.
• Your two-step verification password. Change it at once from a device that is still logged in, and end the unknown sessions. If you use the same password elsewhere, change it there too.
• A seed phrase. Move what is left to a new wallet with a new phrase, from a device you trust. The old wallet cannot be made safe again.
• Remote access. Disconnect the device from the internet and remove the app. Change your passwords from another device.
• A payment. Contact your bank, card provider or exchange and describe what happened. Do not send a second payment to "release" the first.

In every case, finish with the same three actions.

1. Report the account. Open its profile and choose Report. Telegram's account for reports about impostors is @notoscam.
2. Block it.
3. Tell the group, in the group. Name the @username. The same account is probably writing to other members now.

Expect a second attempt. People who lost money are often contacted again by a "recovery service" or a "senior admin" who can return it for a fee. That is the same scam, a second time.

A notice admins can pin

Admins: copy either version into your group as it is and pin it. Replace the words in square brackets.

The short version, also suited to a welcome message:

Admins will never message you first. Nobody from this group will ask for a login code, a password, a seed phrase or a payment. If someone does, it is a scam. Report it here in the group.

The longer version:

Admins will never message you first.

If you ask a question here, we answer here. An account that writes to you privately with an admin's name and photo is a copy.

We will never ask for:

• the login code Telegram sent you
• your password
• your seed phrase or private key
• access to your screen or device
• a payment or a fee

To check an account, open this group's list of administrators and compare the @username, character by character.

Did someone write to you? Do not answer and do not open links. Report the account, block it, and tell us here: [how members reach the admins].

Three details make the notice work.

• Keep the promise. If one admin writes to a member first, even to be helpful, the rule stops meaning anything. When a private chat is truly needed, say so in the group first and let the member start it.
• Repeat it. Pins get replaced and new members do not scroll. Put the short version in the welcome message too.
• Do not list admin usernames in the notice. Lists go out of date. The group's own administrator list is always current.

What the notice cannot do, and what covers the rest

A pinned message only helps the members who read it. The other defences belong to the admins: a hidden member list, support answered in the open chat, and removing copies of admins while they are still in the group.

That last task is hard to do by hand. Targa compares each member's name and profile photo with the group's admins, normalizes lookalike characters first, and checks again when a member changes their profile. Members can use /report to call the admins without other members seeing who reported. Targa cannot see a private message, and neither can any other bot. For that part, the rule on this page is the defence.

Admins can read how to protect a group from scammers for the full list, or run the free group check to see what the group shows to an outsider.