![\"Iona](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SEI_137397277_5d3fa0-e1749119481911.jpg\")
\n\t\tIt was creepy to see my identity hijacked, says Iona (Picture: Iona Bain)<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tIt was creepy to see my identity hijacked, says Iona (Picture: Iona Bain)<\/p>\n
They say talking to yourself is the first sign of madness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If so, then talking to someone\u00a0pretending\u00a0to be you is even madder. But I\u2019ve got a very good reason for doing so.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over the past few weeks, I\u2019ve been speaking to someone posing as me on a messaging and social media<\/a> app called Telegram.<\/p>\n It\u2019s one of the most popular of its kind with more than a billion users worldwide. Telegram is known for its looser moderation and mass \u2018channels\u2019 which you can follow for news and tips on all kinds of subjects.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also become a notorious breeding ground for fraud<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Criminals take advantage of the app\u2019s anonymity and the ability to reach thousands of users at a time, using AI bots to spread scams<\/a> quickly and disappear before they can be shut down.<\/p>\n Many are trying to win trust by impersonating celebrities, companies, and trusted \u2018experts\u2019 in their field.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Including, as it turns out, me.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n I was first alerted to Fake Iona by\u00a0an acquaintance who had been contacted by them and wanted to confirm with me it was genuine.\u00a0<\/p>\n When I checked them out, I wasn\u2019t impressed. They got my first name wrong, calling me Lona Bain. The profile had simply nicked a photo off Instagram<\/a> and used some of my biography\u00a0as a personal finance expert.\u00a0<\/p>\n Talk about low effort!\u00a0<\/p>\n But it was creepy to see my identity hijacked \u2013 and alarming to think others might be duped.\u00a0<\/p>\n So I reported it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t I emailed Telegram,\u00a0using\u00a0its \u2018Report Impersonation\u2019 channel, and waited.\u00a0Weeks passed and nothing happened.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s when I decided to go undercover. I created a\u00a0dummy profile\u00a0and messaged Fake Iona directly,\u00a0feigning interest in her expertise.<\/p>\n Fake Iona veered between short, clumsy sentences and articulate AI-generated paragraphs urging me to invest in cryptocurrency.\u00a0<\/p>\n She\u00a0sent me a link to a firm claiming to offer a \u2018wide array of investment opportunities\u2019 in cryptocurrency<\/a>.\u00a0But after researching them further, I noticed\u00a0the outfit had a suspiciously limited online footprint and vague detail about how it works.<\/p>\n The alarm bells were deafening.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the website,\u00a0I found a badly-written prospectus with a bogus incorporation certificate,\u00a0despite having\u00a0no listing on Companies House, and references to untraceable awards.\u00a0<\/p>\n To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web The senior management team\u00a0did\u00a0not have any online presence outside\u00a0the\u00a0website and its office claims to be headquartered at an address in south west London<\/a>, but the only business located there is a plush wine bar.\u00a0<\/p>\n Either they like to mix their crypto with their chianti, or none of this was legitimate.<\/p>\n Nonetheless,\u00a0Fake Iona was persistent\u00a0and\u00a0sent me a testimonial video of a\u00a0random woman, who\u00a0I\u2019m calling Diane, gushing about the $15,000 she\u00a0had made using the firm\u2019s services.<\/p>\n She didn\u2019t mention me by name, which suggested the clip had been recycled from another scam.<\/p>\n All in all, this exchange went on for several weeks until I confronted\u00a0Fake Iona,\u00a0telling her I was the real deal, and the person she was pretending to be.\u00a0I expected\u00a0her\u00a0to disappear\u00a0but instead, she\u00a0doubled down, accusing\u00a0me\u00a0of being the imposter.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t In a surreal exchange, I pointed out\u00a0my name was spelt wrong on her profile. It was Lona instead of Iona.\u00a0<\/p>\n Back came the reply: \u2018Oh give me a break, \u2018Iona with an I\u2019. You can type whatever you want, it doesn\u2019t make you the real deal.\u2019\u00a0Being accused of being fake by someone impersonating me felt like the last straw!\u00a0<\/p>\n Eventually,\u00a0a few months after our initial interaction,\u00a0the account vanished, but only because the scammer deleted it. Telegram never acted on my reports, nor did it respond to my repeated requests for comment. I got my @ionajbain handle back, but\u00a0it was\u00a0no thanks to the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t just my problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n An academic study of more than 120,000 public channels has found widespread fake and cloned accounts mimicking influencers, crypto firms and even group admins to push scams.\u00a0<\/p>\n And during all this, victims\u00a0have lost millions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Telegram may have added verification badges and reporting tools to try and stop the rot\u00a0but\u00a0researchers say the fakes keep thriving because enforcement is patchy and takedowns slow.\u00a0<\/p>\n But\u00a0it\u2019s not confined to Telegram.\u00a0<\/p>\n Impersonation fraud has become systemic across social media. Criminals now have AI on their side: bots that create endless fake profiles, produce slick marketing pitches, churn out deepfake<\/a> videos and replicate the markers of respectability used by genuine influencers.\u00a0<\/p>\n For ordinary users, it makes it harder than ever to know who they can really trust online.\u00a0<\/p>\n My brush with Fake Iona was ultimately\u00a0comical, but the experience highlights a wider truth: social media firms don\u2019t do enough to prevent fraudulent accounts\u00a0from\u00a0flourishing, nor do they take responsibility when that leads to disaster.\u00a0<\/p>\n It feels like\u00a0they have little incentive to crack down aggressively \u2013 impersonators bring traffic; traffic brings ad revenue.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Until that changes, the impersonators will keep multiplying.\u00a0<\/p>\n I might have won this particular Telegram battle, but I\u2019m not confident we will win the war against shameless copycats like \u2018Lona Bain\u2019.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Telegram told Metro: \u2018Creating fraudulent accounts is explicitly forbidden by Telegram\u2019s terms of service and such accounts are banned or flagged with the SCAM or FAKE tags whenever discovered.<\/p>\n \u2018Unfortunately, impersonation is possible on any platform. In addition to moderating scam accounts, Telegram allows notable people to verify their channels and groups, letting users know they are who they say they are and ensuring that they are presented at the top of search results.\u2019<\/p>\n Do you have a story you\u2019d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Share your views in the comments below.<\/p>\n Arrow Arrow Arrow![\"IONA](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SEI_122154704-85bf-e1745600020371.jpg\")
\n\t\tI confronted\u00a0Fake Iona,\u00a0telling her I was the real deal (Picture: Liv OrchardMirador Talent Management)<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsupports HTML5
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tvideo<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Iona](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SEI_247869214-6a67-e1745601714680.jpg\")
\n\t\tMy brush with Fake Iona highlights a wider truth (Picture: PHILIPVOLKERS)<\/p>\n
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