Radical and extremist discussions – Terror and extremist discussions, racist content such as right-wing movements, neo-Nazis, and radical Islamic groups.

Drug and illicit traffic – Including vendors who trade in prescription drugs, weapons, and other illegal products.

Financial fraud – Stolen accounts, stolen credit cards, fake money, and tutorials to help other financial fraudsters.

Data loss – Compromised data of brands or individuals that is offered for sale.

Hacking – trade, and discussion of hacking-related topics, including malware, vulnerabilities, and ransomware.

What type of illicit content can be found on Telegram?Īmong the main illegal activities that take place on Telegram, you can find: Unsurprisingly, features such as full anonymity, including the ability to forward messages anonymously and the ability to set up a username in order to protect users’ phone numbers, made it one of the top chat applications of choice for many criminals. Later on, after the WhatsApp privacy policy scandal in 2021, Telegram became one of the trending apps to replace WhatsApp, while its high privacy standards attracted brand-new users and threat actors. How Telegram became a safe haven for threat actorsĪfter Edward Snowden revealed government surveillance, Telegram was launched in 2013 with the mission to protect private conversations and data from third parties (such as governments). The platform is used for a wide variety of illegal activities and many cybercriminals use it as a preferred platform to conduct their activities. It evolved into a platform that hosts a large volume of illicit content, some of which originates from the dark web. Since its launch as an anonymous chat application in 2013, Telegram has attracted many cybercriminals.

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