Checking a Bot Is Ours
How to tell one of our bots from someone impersonating it.
Anyone can create a Telegram bot. Nothing on Telegram reserves our name, so someone can register a username close to ours and open a chat that looks exactly like this one. The only difference that matters is whether the bot is on our list.
The list
risbot.io/verify names every bot we run. It is the only list we publish, and it is complete: a bot that is not on it is not ours, whatever it tells you about itself.
You can paste a username into that page to check it, or read the list - it is short. If you are signed in, the same address opens the same list and the same check inside your account, under Verify a Bot in the sidebar.
Type the address yourself
This is the part that matters, and it is easy to get wrong.
A fake bot can show you a link that says "verified", styled exactly like a real one. It can link to a page it controls, or to a convincing copy. A link you were sent proves nothing - including a link you reached from a bot you do not already trust.
So the check starts with you typing risbot.io into your browser, and going to the verify
page from there. That is the whole point of the page living on our website instead of
inside the bot: you already trust the address, and you can reach it without asking the bot
that is under suspicion.
Retired bots
A bot we have replaced stays on the list, marked retired, with its replacement named. It is still ours - it just is not in service any more, and it will tell you where it went if you message it.
That means "retired" is a safe answer. It is not on the list that is the warning sign.
What we will never do
No bot will ever ask for your exchange API key - ours included. A key is only ever entered on your account page at risbot.io. No one from this project will message you first asking for keys, a seed phrase, or a payment.
If a bot asks you for a key in a chat, it is not ours and it is trying to take your money. Close it and report it to Telegram.
If support sends you a verification code
If you contact support and we need to confirm you're really talking to us
about your own account, we may send a 4-digit code to the bot chat and ask you to read it
back to us in that same conversation. You'll get a message that looks like this, with a real code in
place of 4281:
That message is the whole procedure: read the code back to us in the conversation you already started with support, and nowhere else. We will never ask you to send this code anywhere else - not to a different chat, not to a "verification bot", not to a person who messages you first claiming to be support. If someone asks you to read this code to them outside a support conversation you started, they are trying to take over your account - close the chat and report it to Telegram.