Scammers Take Advantage of Telegram Ads to Imitate Monad Claim Portal

Malicious actors have exploited Monad’s official Telegram channel, posting advertisements that closely resemble the project’s upcoming claim portal.

In a post on X, Monad co-founder Keone Hon cautioned users against clicking ads found on their official channel. He noted that attackers purchased Telegram ads that appeared in the project’s official announcement channel, which is intended solely for Monad’s updates.

“It’s astonishing that Telegram allows content to be pushed directly into a channel that typically contains updates from only one party,” Hon remarked.

The attack occurred just before a highly anticipated Monad airdrop, set to open at 1:00 pm UTC on Tuesday. With scammers attempting to take advantage of the increased attention surrounding the airdrop claim portal, Hon urged users to avoid rushing.

“There’s no need to act hurriedly, and always verify three times before proceeding with anything,” Hon warned, addressing the community regarding the phishing attempts. He reassured users that they can take their time since the portal will remain open for three weeks.

Monad sees $7 billion FDV on Hyperliquid ahead of its airdrop

Prior to its official token generation event, the yet-to-launch MON token is already available for trading on Hyperliquid’s perpetual futures market at approximately $0.07, indicating a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of about $7 billion based on a total supply of 100 billion tokens.

The early pricing underscores investor enthusiasm for its mainnet launch and its potential to rival other high-performance blockchain networks.

Monad is a layer-1 blockchain designed for Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility while enhancing scalability and throughput. The network claims to handle up to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) with near-instant finality, achieved through parallel execution and an optimized consensus layer.

Monad asserts it has resolved the blockchain trilemma, the concept suggesting that a network can typically attain only two of three essential attributes: scalability, security, and decentralization.

Related: BNB Chain’s official X account hacked, CZ warns of phishing links

Fake ads violate Telegram policies

Although the fake ads managed to infiltrate Telegram’s infrastructure, they clearly breach several of the platform’s Ad Policies and Guidelines.

This includes Telegram’s rules against deceptive advertising, content manipulation, spam software, and the promotion of harmful financial products or services.

Telegram explicitly prohibits phishing links in its ads. “Ads must not endorse phishing, including services that mislead a user into providing personal or other information,” they stated.

While the platform has appropriate policies in place, the Monad incident highlights the necessity for stronger ad vetting mechanisms to prevent phishing attacks.