Before knocking down via Telegram, Xinbi Guarantee and Haowang Guarantee showed similar posts that provided explicit illegal services in all these categories and more. Like the newly rising Tudou guarantees, these other “guarantees” markets do not sell services directly, but provide custody and deposit features to prevent suppliers from cheating on customers.
When WIRED asked Telegram in May about a report from Elliptic that focused on Xinbi Guarantee’s criminal offers, Telegram responded with a broad purge: It banner 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 explicit as the batons and shades used to imprison forced laborers in scam compounds.
“The communities that were previously published by or included in reports published by the elliptical machine were deleted,” said Telegram spokesman Remi Vaughn in a statement sent to Wired at the time, adding that “crimes such as fraudsters or money laundering are prohibited by Telegram’s Terms of Service and are always deleted when found.”
Since then, however, the Elliptical continues to share findings about obvious money laundering in ten other markets, including the Tudou Sublication, which includes cable journalists and telegraph spokespersons. However, the Telegram did not delete any accounts related to the black market oval highlighting. In fact, Xinbi’s guarantees are rebuilt in a new account, not even rebranding. Although the Telegram itself says the market’s content violates its terms of service, it still does not face a new account ban.
In a statement to Wired, a telegraph spokesman defended the company’s obvious decision not to ban the rebound of the black market. “The channels involved mainly involve users in China, where rigid capital controls often leave citizens with no choice but to seek alternative ways to move funds internationally,” the statement said. “We evaluate the report on a case-by-case basis and explicitly reject the blanket ban – especially when users try to circumvent oppressive restrictions imposed by authoritarian regimes. We remain firmly committed to protecting user privacy and defending the right to fundamental freedoms, including financial freedom.”
The oval Robinson rejected this argument. “We’ve been studying for nearly two years, and they’ve been studying these markets, and they’re not helping people achieve financial autonomy,” Robinson said. “These markets are mainly promoting the profit laundering of fraud and other illegal activities.”
Former prosecutor Erin West now leads a nonprofit Clover operation dedicated to undermining crypto scam operations, and her allegations are simpler. “These are bad guys that can enable bad guy business on their bad guy platforms,” West said. “They have the ability to shut down the scam economy and human trafficking. Instead, they hosted Craigslist’s crypto scammers.”
Jacob Sims, a visiting researcher at Harvard Asia Center, said the telegraph’s seemingly inconsistent approach to banning encryption of black markets and the principle of “financial autonomy” may be compared to actions that do not work without efforts in the U.S. government. In early May, the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crime Enforcement Network officially marked Huione Group as a “main money laundering issue.” Sims believes that direct reference to the name Haowang guaranteed, but not Tudou guaranteed, could stimulate Telegram to take action and another similar move at the government level could push Telegram to take action again.
“Ultimately, last month’s crackdown showed how destructive the telegram would be when it collaborates, but also showed how quickly the scammers have to adapt,” Sims said. “Unless there is a law enforcement that causes a specific case, there is no real legal culpability for what’s going on on the platform.
Updated at 2:30 PM ET June 23, 2025: Clarified the deadline for Haowang guaranteeing approximately 296,000 users.
