Fake Telegram announcement of New Year's payments: how to recognise such fakes

Christmas is not only the season for generosity, but also an opportunity for the grinches (ill-wishers) who aim to play tricks on you. But, it’s well beyond the usual money hustle, as this time they want to use you as sheep for their Telegram flock.

Fake: “All adult residents of Ukraine can receive New Year’s payments of UAH 6,000.” This message found its way onto the “Assistance to IDPs. Humanitarian Aid” Telegram channel. 

The announcement claims that “it’s a single one-time payment per family member thanks to a presidential decree dated December 4, 2023.” Just hit the button, and the cash is yours.

This is a lie. The alleged decree, dated December 4, 2023, is nowhere to be found on the official website of the President of Ukraine. 

So why are they trying to pull the wool over our eyes? Do they really want to scam us out of our money again? Nope, not this time. At least not yet. They only want you to click on the link. It’s all about using unscrupulous means to promote yet another trash channel. 

Here’s the playbook; it’s really quite simple: the more subscribers, the more advertisers and the more advertisers, the more money. 

Just click the [receive] button, and you’ll be re-directed to the closed “Ukrainian Dead End” channel. Want to join? Submit a request.

The good news? Only 14 subscribers so far. A far cry from the usual hundreds of thousands. It’s also encouraging that the “Assistance to IDPs” Telegram channel audience responded to this advert mostly with 94 dislikes to 6 likes.

A quick reminder:

When someone says that clicking on a magical button will bring everyone easy money, you can be sure that it’s a red flag. 

Government payouts are never offered through Telegram channels. They usually require paper applications or digital forms on platforms like Diia or Yepidtrymtsi. The process may take several weeks and includes a number of procedures. Unless you go through this process, no one will pay out any money. 

Beware of urgency and haste - they’re sure signs of a scam. 

Government aid typically targets specific groups - children, refugees, people with disabilities, families of the deceased. It’s very rare that absolutely every adult receives assistance in accordance with some decree allegedly issued by the president or prime minister. Here, the populist “Yulia’s thousand” comes to mind. The notion of a blanket UAH 6,000 payout for everyone during times of war and economic crisis is a pure lie. 

We’d like to remind you that we’ve analyzed similar schemes before, like the false Telegram announcement re-directing you to a link from the French organization ACTED promising hefty payouts to IDPs