Interview with a Crypto Scammer

I am doing a piece on a particularly large and menacing Kremlin QAnon network so I have joined a few chats that normally even I wouldn’t venture.

One of them is “EXPOSEthePEDOSendOFtheCABAL” which is pure Russian propaganda with an emphasis on Pizzagate-type content mixed with “news” from the FSB.

One of the biggest vulnerabilities in Telegram is that by default anyone can put you in any chat they want. So crypto scammers exploit this to impersonate chat channels that people join to message them directly and get their information.

I talked to one of them this morning and it made me laugh so I thought I would share what it’s like to try to do research on Telegram.

Downloadable Vimeo.