"Russians are really disconnected from the reality of what happening to their country," Andrey said. "So Telegram has become essential for understanding what's going on to the Russian-speaking world." Despite Telegram's origins, its approach to users' security has privacy advocates worried. "He has kind of an old-school cyber-libertarian world view where technology is there to set you free," Maréchal said. Such instructions could actually endanger people — citizens receive air strike warnings via smartphone alerts. The perpetrators use various names to carry out the investment scams. They may also impersonate or clone licensed capital market intermediaries by using the names, logos, credentials, websites and other details of the legitimate entities to promote the illegal schemes.
from fr