Scammers are now using videos from Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino to promote fake tokens on Telegram, a new report from Open Measures has warned. The report specifically warns social media users about crypto scams involving high-profile right-wing figures.
Bongino, known back in the days as one of the earliest financial backers of Rumble, has now become a prime target for scammers on the platform. The scammers are using his popularity with the right-wing audience to carry out their bad acts. The former law enforcement officer’s name is now used to promote fake cryptocurrency groups on Telegram.
Scammers use Bongino’s video to carry out illicit activities
The scammers behind the crypto projects that purported to be carrying the images and videos of Bongino usually use Telegram for their communications. This is because the application has minimal content moderation, and it is very easy to stay anonymous compared to other platforms.
According to the report, the scammers spam the comment sections on Rumble videos with Telegram links pretending to be Bongino or that they know him. Most of the URLs being posted in the comment section contained phrases like “Contact_DanBongino” and “DanBonginoo.”
According to Open Research, they discovered that such links to Telegram groups attached to Bongino have been posted to more than 1.3 million Rumble comment sections. The perpetrators carried out this act between November 2022 and November 2025, with more than two-thirds of the incidents posted between June 2024 and February 2025.
The report noted that during the peak of the links appearing in comment sections on Rumble, they represented about 8% of the total comments on the platform. Open Measures mentioned that there were more than 1,896 unique URLs that appeared in 100 or more comments each. They claimed that of the total, 267 URLs impersonated Bongino, who joined Trump’s administration in February 2025, and they appeared in over 184,000 Rumble comments.
Aside from Bongino, there were other URLs that had the names of other popular figures in the United States. For instance, URLs referencing Donald Trump Jr. were seen in more than 36,000 comments. These URLs also contained references to other members of the Trump family.
In addition, links namedropping the Tate brothers and Russell Brand also appeared in about 18,000 comments each.
Names referenced have ties to the current administration
Most of the names referenced in the links are conservatives or at least have ties to United States President Donald Trump or his administration, however loose the ties are. They include conservative personalities like Tucker Carlson, Benny Johnson, and far-right political operative Steve Bannon. It remains unknown what happens to those who clicked the link that led to the Telegram groups.
However, Open Measures predicts that the groups will be about digital assets. They also added that it is highly possible that the group is run by scammers trying to convince people to put their funds into some sort of financial investments. It is also likely that these scammers used Bongino, Trump Jr., Andrew Tate, and others because they are affiliated with crypto.
Andrew Tate, for instance, has promoted crypto in the past, launching his memecoin. Trump Jr. has also been active in the crypto industry, urging people to invest heavily in the assets. He also has ties to several crypto projects through his family. Meanwhile, President Trump also has several crypto ventures, including his meme coin, which is down 87% from its all-time high on January 19, a day before he was sworn in for his second term.
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