High-Profile Figures Exploited in Elaborate Crypto Scam Operation
Social media users across the UK are being urged to exercise extreme caution after a disturbing new report uncovered a widespread cryptocurrency scam campaign targeting followers of prominent right-wing figures. The investigation, conducted by Open Measures, reveals that Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino has become a prime target for fraudsters on the video platform Rumble.
Bongino, one of Rumble's earliest financial backers and a former law enforcement officer, is seeing his name and reputation exploited to lend credibility to fake cryptocurrency groups on the messaging app Telegram. Scammers are capitalising on his significant popularity with the platform's largely right-wing audience to trick unsuspecting victims.
How the Elaborate Scam Operates
The fraudulent activity is concentrated in the comment sections of Rumble videos. According to the report, individuals behind these crypto projects post comments containing Telegram links. They either brazenly pretend to be Dan Bongino himself or falsely claim to have a personal connection with him.
These comments often contain URLs with deceptive phrases such as 'Contact_DanBongino' and 'DanBonginoo' to appear legitimate. The scammers heavily favour Telegram for communication due to its minimal content moderation and the relative ease of maintaining anonymity.
Open Research uncovered a staggering volume of this activity, finding that from November 2022 to November 2025, Telegram links appeared in more than 1.3 million Rumble comments. The problem has escalated dramatically, with over two-thirds of these comments posted between June 2024 and February 2025. During this intense period, a shocking 8 percent of all comments on the platform contained Telegram links.
A Who's Who of Conservative Targets
While Dan Bongino was the most frequently impersonated figure, the scam network cast a wide net. The investigation identified 1,896 unique URLs that each appeared in 100 or more comments.
From this total, 267 URLs were dedicated to impersonating Bongino, who formally joined the Trump administration in February. These fraudulent links were detected in over 184,000 Rumble comments.
The Trump family were the next most common targets. URLs referencing Donald Trump Jr. and other Trump family members appeared in more than 36,000 comments. This aligns with the family's known involvement in various cryptocurrency ventures.
Other prominent figures exploited by the scammers include the Tate brothers and Russell Brand, with links name-dropping them appearing in 18,000 comments each. The list of targets is overwhelmingly composed of conservatives and those affiliated with former President Donald Trump, however loose that connection may be. Other victims of impersonation include conservative media personalities Tucker Carlson and Benny Johnson, as well as far-right political operative Steve Bannon.
The precise aim of these scams remains unclear, but researchers suspect the perpetrators were attempting to lure people into investing in dubious cryptocurrency projects or other risky financial instruments. Given that many of the other URLs studied by Open Research were explicitly crypto-related, and that figures like Bongino, Trump Jr., and Andrew Tate have either promoted crypto or have their own related projects, the fraudsters are clearly exploiting this perceived association.
This report emerges as former President Trump himself is involved in multiple crypto ventures, including his own meme coin which has reportedly fallen 87 percent from its all-time high. The Daily Mail has approached the FBI for comment on the matter.
