Red flags in OTC and Telegram-based crypto deals

---

Any deal that rushes settlement or discourages explorer verification should trigger escalation.

Pressure and urgency

Scammers create artificial deadlines. Your policy should allow operators to pause and verify through independent channels.

Domain and handle verification

Impersonation of support staff is common. Bookmarks and out-of-band confirmation beat DMs from strangers.

Settlement discipline

Use whitelisted addresses, small test transactions where policy allows, and never change wire or wallet instructions based solely on chat messages.