'Moderation Bot' Blacklists Telegram Users to Tackle Crypto Scams

Blockchain advisory firm AmaZix is opening up access to its "Moderation bot" to help stamp out cryptocurrency scams on popular messaging app Telegram.

Using the bot, the company has built up a blacklist of Telegram users based on data collected over two years.

The database of dubious actors was developed through the moderation of groups on Telegram.

From over 140 groups, AmaZix said it has seen over 730,000 Telegram users, of which over 54,500 were banned for apparently attempting some form of crypto scam.

These include impersonating admins and direct messaging users, posting fake offers or giveaways, posting links for cloned social media or other websites, and phishing group users in attempts to steal private keys.

"Through our service, which takes the form of a bot that is added to a group, we offer free, real-time threat intelligence for Telegram. As soon as a user posts malicious content on any of the groups we monitor, they are automatically banned from all our groups, and added to our global blacklist."

"As soon as a project gets traction, the scammers move in. Telegram offers the criminals complete anonymity, so they use it with absolutely no fear of reprisals."

"If someone forwards spam, regardless of the language, then the bot will act on it. The only feature where language is important is the curse list where the bot deletes many curse words," he said.

AmaZix has no formal relationship with Telegram currently, according to Horvat.

"Our hope is, by opening access and encouraging more people to use and contribute to our service, we will catch the scammers even more quickly. This will effectively discourage malicious activity on Telegram."