Topic: Discord & scammers. Check user IDs and user colors of strangers send you PMs (Read 1062 times)

Discord has its new guide on scams on their platform to help Discord users understanding and avoiding common scams.

Discord servers can be organized better than Telegram but as same as other messaging spaces, Discord is full of scammers and impersonators of server admins, moderators. Newbies with limited experience in cryptocurrency and Discord space are most favorite targets of scammers. They are read available scam-avoiding guides and be careful as well as disciplined when they are online. Doing so, newbies can be safe in Discord.

These 11 New Discord Scams Can (and Will) Steal Your Data

Biggest scam threats are from Discord Nitro but there are others too. In the article, you will see the most 11 scam ways in Discord. The article is long but it is worthy to read because it can save your from scammers on Discord.

Below is a list of 11 common scam methods on Discord.

Scam with Discord Nitro
Extra Nitro giveaways
QR codes to redeem free Nitro
Nitro phishing emails
Non-system-tagged Nitro bots
Discord-Steam scams

Six other Types of Scams on Discord
Unsolicited messages from accounts
Attempts to steal your Discord token
Phony NFT drops and crypto giveaways
Discord staff impersonation
Roblox-Discord scams
Name-and-shame scam

I have been in cryptocurrency market long enough to know "DM first is not real admin". They are mostly scammers and if I want to check, I will find the official admin with same username, then click on PM, to see is it a same user just sends me a DM previously. If not, it is an impersonator of real admin.

Mostly I even don't mind to do this step because DM first is already a signal of scammer/ impersonator.

If you bought a discord nitro you can change to your ID but after this, it will back again to default settings also to prevent scammers or suspicious DM there's a discord setting that you can turn of the direct message to your account using this feature. Base on my experience in different project this can be prone if you are enable it only way they will contact you is if you are the one who makes a DM and Ping them in the server channels.


Also one of the form scams in discord and hacking through using links send from DMs that can drain your wallets and full authorization access to your device just want to share too and good content to the new comers who are want to join in crypto space most likely in NFT.

Do you know most common scams on Discord?

Use your time to read this topic and some articles, it's helpful to save you from Discord scams.

Discord Scams: Identify, Prevent, And Combat
These 11 New Discord Scams Can (and Will) Steal Your Data

A blog article officially from Discord
Policy & Safety: Common scams and what to look out for

I strongly advice you to read the full blog article as here, I only give some main bullet points.

• Fake Games, Programs, Videos or Downloads
• Fake Giveaways/NFT Drops
• Discord Impersonation for Partner/Verified/HypeSquad
• Free Nitro Scams

One more type of scam in Discord is invite people to a scam Discord channel, set up a bot for account verification but with a phishing link. It is to steal your Discord Token ID that can help hackesr to bypass Email, 2FA, Password.

• How To Login With Discord Token
• Can tokens bypass 2FA and SMS auth, and if they can, how do I defend myself against hacking?

I got this information from [SCAM] Hiring Discord Moderator from @Saruc

Some simple steps to scam you and log in your account
1. Invite you to a scam Discord channel


2. Require you to verify with a fake bot (app). Example: MEE6 Fake (.app) domain


3. It requested "Token" to bypass your account without 2FA protection

It is a kind of advanced feature for privacy and security, like 2FA. If you care about it, let's activate it (the developer mode), that's all. There are people who activate 2FA for their exchange accounts, some others don't. If it is displayed by default mode, people will don't care about it (I meant who don't care about privacy and security will don't care about anything, with default mode or developer mode)
UIDs are multi-digit numbers and they are too long. I don't know the root cause of Discord developers to not display it by default for all users but maybe its length is potentially annoying and they decided to hide it in developer mode.

this is the thing.
why is developer mode so hidden?

the user IDis quite important, it should be displayed by default.

thanks for the suggestion, will add it to the main posts.

and thanks a lot for the merit!

In OP, I emphasized the importance of users' multi-digit ID numbers, and colors. To see the multi-digit ID number that is unique for each user, you have to activate the developer mode. I am sure that there are very little Discord users activate it.
Your works are good that can not stop me to leave you my reward, 1 merit, bro. I recommend you to add the link of the official guide from Discord platform to your works above: https://support.discordapp.com/hc/en-us/articles/206346498-Where-can-I-find-my-User-Server-Message-ID-

the 0-4digit ID can be changed but not the unique user ID that discord makes invisible by default.

I published an article talking about it too that can add to OP point

https://medium.com/@lucasgabd/how-to-protect-yourself-from-discord-crypto-scams-a-simple-way-upvote-to-inform-more-people-44d3fe6cb6bd

and a thread here:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/a-simple-way-to-protect-yourself-from-discord-crypto-scams-5030092

this is really important information that all the begginers should know about.

The link is great.

Most but not all, and sometimes always close the gate causes to losing opportunity to make friends with really good people. I agree with you that strangers and their DMs should be cautiously considered but carefully open the gate of discussions to the others is not too bad. Just be careful and aware of risks from strangers. Not only on Discord but also on the forum. The forum has an option to restrict PM from newbies but I let it opens because the aforementioned reasons.

or If you don't wanna bother with the spams/scams, better disable DMs from server members through privacy settings (READ: Blocking & Privacy Settings) **it doesn't apply to your friends

Most DMs from strangers are trashy anyway. and If someone who is not your friend needs to slide into your DMs they'd ping you especially if it's important. That's what ppl do in my case.

There are two methods to report scammers on Discord:

- Reporting them to admins/ moderators of each Discord groups.
- Reporting them to Discord server.

For both methods, the must step is activate your developer mode (in OP).
The follow the guide there: https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/how-to-report-someone-discord/

Doing this is personal choice, but I often report scammers to admins or moderators of Discord groups I joined.

A reminder when you report:
- Report their unique IDs /multi-digit ID numbers (after activating your developer mode), not their usernames.
- Report their message IDs.

When I saw this thread and read the first post.
I immediately open my discord app on my mobile phone and tried to browse some group chats and tried also to report some user. But I can't find the the report button, only I can see in each profile is block button.
Anyone have the idea how we can report if we found some scammers/spammers on Discord?

I have noticed recently there are a lot of Discord scammers.. Since the first one messaged me and I tried to redeem my price on a website only to see I needed to deposit to redeem my price, I instantly knew it was a scam then and just ignore any message about crypto on Discord now.
No one is legit is going to message you about crypto on Discord so you should really watch out with that.

Better to just use something like gmail conversation since they can't really imitate something unless you fail to even notice a simple mispelling.  I don't think many people on this forum even use discord anyways, seems like most just use telegram.

Just like bitcointalk, everyone should avoid private communication in telegram. Talk in public places such as groups, and always confirm the identity on the group.

On a group it is easier to detect scammers. Here, for example  everyone quickly tag and accuse scammers  on threads . On pm you are more vulnerable

Appreciated help from ONEnergy, I almost forgot to mentioned about user IDs in Discord groups and unique user IDs. Now, I added this additional details for my thread.

You should notice to differentiate between user IDs and unique user IDs (or also called as  multi-digit ID number)


With this user in Crypto Bridge Discord group, user ID in that group is

What I should do to get this user's unique user ID?
Let's follow these steps:
User Settings > Apperance > Developer Mode (turn it to ON)

Now, let's apply this Developer Mode to check unique user ID of Scott Wehman#6261.
Right click on the username of Scott Wehman > Click on Copy ID

Paste ID copied to see what it is


Yeah, as you can see: Scott Wehman has user ID in Crypto Bridge Discord group is #6261, but has an unique user ID is #409926710658596865.

Read more here: https://support.discordapp.com/hc/en-us/articles/206346498-Where-can-I-find-my-User-Server-Message-ID-

---

I added this point too (just think of it minutes ago).

Yeah I saw them fabricating and duplicating full name with number,
so only ID can not be changed.... an I mean Long ID number that can be enabled in Developer mode

Therefore, I think a combination between user ID and username will be a good tool to detect scammers. They can change (just assumed they can do it) their usernames, and make fake IDs (same as developers, not sure because I have not tried it yet, just read tips to make fake IDs above); but they can not self-allocate their colors in Discord groups that managed by developers.
Additionally, there are steps to check unique user IDs.

It is possible. I already got PM from a scammer that had same username and same user id like ID #4444

The only unique id is if you enable developer mode in settings.

I don't know what happens when two users have the same name + id in a server, but AFAIK neither names or IDs are unique globally. I could use ninja#1337 and someone else would also be able to use this combination.

Having an cool id (like #666 or #1337).

I very rarely use Discord so I didn't pay that much attention to it either. I didn't know about username colors being different, thanks for the tip!

@ONEnergy
Even if the ID can be changed with Nitro I assume you can't use an ID that is used by another member right? In this case an admin of the group.
I doubt serious admins of discord groups change their IDs, what benefit could they have from doing this?

I believe this is not true. ID can be changed if you have Nitro. You need to buy nitro to be able to change the ID. The unique user id is longer: like 589473379990222325

Username color
Scammers can change their usernames, but they can not change their colors, which show roles of users in Discord channels. For each project, developers will asign different colors for different types of users: from admins, moderators, community managers, bots, and normal users.
Users that have important roles, such as admins, moderators, community managers, for example, usually have special colors, that are easily to recognize.



There is one id on discord that is unique and you have to enable developer mode in discord settings to get it.

Discord has option to check unique user ID. You need to enable developer option in settings to get this. User can easily copy Name and avatar of another user but cannot duplicate user id. If you compare user id you will get info if this user is the one that he is claiming to be. Just click copy ID as on image bellow and compare both ID's.



Also username color is not relevant in this case. As you receive PM from scammers username color is always the same regardless of users role on the official server.

I wrote some ways how to spot a scammer on telegram or discord here:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.51908476

this is a new form!
i use discord not so much... but i use it.
so thank you for the tip!

cheers

Discord is one of the most used channels of crypto projects, besides the forum, Twitter, and Telegram. Scammers, definitely, do not ignore those channels to spread their fake messages, contacts to scam people around.
To be safe in Discord channels of crypto projects, you should remember to carefully check those things:
- User's unique user ID (multi-digit ID number)
- User's color

User's unique user ID
Each user in Discord has only one fixed ID, and it can not be changed.
Scammers can changed their usernames to as same as which developer that scammer want to be. It is very easy.
They only have to do three simple steps to get fake username:

1. Click on User setting


2. Click on Edit button

3. Type to change username


You should notice to differentiate between user IDs and unique user IDs (or also called as multi-digit ID number)


With this user in Crypto Bridge Discord group, user ID in that group is

What I should do to get this user's unique user ID?
Let's follow these steps:
User Settings > Apperance > Developer Mode (turn it to ON)
=300
How to Enable Developer mode on Mobile app?



Obtaining User's ID on Mobile app



Now, let's apply this Developer Mode to check unique user ID of Scott Wehman#6261.
Right click on the username of Scott Wehman > Click on Copy ID

Paste ID copied to see what it is


Yeah, as you can see: Scott Wehman has user ID in Crypto Bridge Discord group is #6261, but has an unique user ID is #409926710658596865.

Read more here: https://support.discordapp.com/hc/en-us/articles/206346498-Where-can-I-find-my-User-Server-Message-ID-

User's color
Scammers can change their usernames, but they can not change their colors, which show roles of users in Discord channels. For each project, developers will asign different colors for different types of users: from admins, moderators, community managers, bots, and normal users.
Users that have important roles, such as admins, moderators, community managers, for example, usually have special colors, that are easily to recognize.

Scammers are normal users, so they mostly will be displayed with white color. Sometimes, project teams might assign different colors to different ranks of users in their Discord channels. So, in such cases (that are rarely seen), you should notice on users that have different colors than admins, moderators, community managers.
In the above image, developers also noted about IDs and colors of their teams.

---

When you get issues, then try asking for help/support; plesase remember:
- Be careful with anyone who makes contacts with intention to help. They are mostly scammers.
- Always check their users' unique IDs (multi-digit ID numbers)
- Always check their users' colors
- Compare their unique user IDs, colors with admins, moderators, etc whom have same usernames.
- You will mostly find important announcements from developers on their user IDs, and hyerarchy of colors in pinned messages.
- If you detetct Discord scammers, and actually receive their PMs, and don't delete their PMs, you will see that weeks or months later, their username will be displayed as "Deleted user" - when they change their usernames again!
- Developers can be scammers too. They can create new accounts, that play as normal users, to scam people in their communities. This can occur with scam projects, because the main purposes of developers is to scam investors, so it is not strange if they create new accounts to act as scammers in their communities, while their main accounts (play as developers) still look like innocent.

Scam with fake link to steal your Discord Token ID