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?
One of the reasons why usernames are being sold is because some companies usually need it for their - let’s say I create a telegram account and used @chickenchops as my username and then a company comes up some time later with the same name and they have a very huge presence online - they may decide to use that same username for their business but since it’s already in use they might reach out to the person who owns the account for them to buy it; but not for that price the scammer in the OP mentioned.
Okay, this seems nice. However, whoever wishes to sell their username should still do a thorough check on the buyer to be sure they aren't scammers and that they are buying for the right reasons. Unfortunately, some people who need money badly cannot be too careful for scammers not to take advantage of them. People should simply avoid selling if they feel they are being pressured to do so.
Oh, I see. My take on this is that whether the offer from the scammer is genuine or not, people should generally desist from selling their usernames on Telegram. It might actually be a smooth transaction between the buyer and the seller, but others who know nothing about this exchange might become victims by trusting a total stranger, thinking it's someone they used to know. When these strangers come to our DMs with this kind of offer, the response should be "no, I don't want to sell my identity" and not just "oh! This dude wants to scam me." Even if the offer is genuine, don't sell. This way, we would save lots of people from becoming victims. Unfortunately, some persons would be too greedy to even think about the negative consequences of such transactions.
There's nothing wrong in selling telegram username if it can fetch you some money. The thing is, if you have a unique username and you wish to sell, do not listen to PMs from a random stranger on telegram. Go to fragment and put it up for sale. Anyone that contacts you directly on telegram is a scammer and wants to trick you into clicking or visiting a phishing website where your wallet will be drained.
I don't know how Fragment really works, but does it mean that scams don't happen there? I have gotten the clue now that people can actually sell their usernames for the right reasons. However, I still think that the sellers should do some background checks on the buyers to confirm that they are good people without malicious intentions. Once bad people take ownership of a good username, they might cause havoc with the name.