Telegram Purged Chinese Crypto Scam Markets—Then Watched as They Rebuilt
Before they were taken down by Telegram, Xinbi Guarantee and Haowang Guarantee displayed similar posts offering explicitly illegal services in all those categories and more. Like the newly ascendant Tudou Guarantee, those other “Guarantee” marketplaces didn’t directly sell services, but instead offer escrow and deposit features that prevent vendors from defrauding customers.
When WIRED asked Telegram in May about a report from Elliptic that focused on Xinbi Guarantee’s criminal offerings, Telegram responded with a broad purge: It banned not only Xinbi’s accounts but also those of Haowang Guarantee, the much larger market that had persisted for three years, enabled around $27 billion in transactions, and sold scam industry services as…
