I am still curious to know: why do people buy usernames? I have read about something similar to this before, but I couldn't wrap my head around why anyone would have to pay such a huge amount of money for a username. Could it be to buy the identity of the original owner of the name and use it to scam people or for any other reason best known to them?
Afaik, they would trick you into transferring ownership of your username and later use it to scam others connected to you, since no monetary transaction is involved here.
The whole thing will only freak someone or allow someone that is greedy to fall for simply because I see no tangible reason for someone to opt in to buy an account a regular telegram account for $8k. I think one of the easiest ways to discover scammers are deals that look too good to be true.
People sell of their KYC data at least not without their consent and those who steal those data to resell may not even sell it for up to $8k except in rare cases.
Actually, the buying and selling of usernames isn't uncommon. They are being sold at a high price in fragments. You'll be surprised to see the amount they have set as the minimum bid.
https://fragment.com/