Telegram Purged Chinese Crypto Scam Markets, Then Watched Them Rebuild


It seemed like significant progress when, in May, Telegram banned black markets that sold tens of billions of dollars in crypto-scam-related services.

But as the money-laundering marketplaces it had banned reemerged with new brands and got back to business, Telegram has done nothing to stop them. WIRED spoke to Operation Shamrock’s Erin West for its article diving into the issue.

These are bad guys, enabling bad-guy business on their bad-guy platform... They have the ability to shut down a scam economy and the trafficking of human beings. Instead, they’re hosting Craigslist for crypto scammers.
— Erin West, Operation Shamrock
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Inside Vietnamese Phone Farms Where Fakery Is Made