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  "path": "/investigaciones/20260630/telegram-ads-media-intitutions-scams-gambling/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-30T05:29:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://maldita.es",
  "tags": [
    "more than 40 public channels",
    "a link to \"Pocket Option,\"",
    "has already warned",
    "apps",
    "not authorized",
    "fake interviews or news articles",
    "after detecting phishing",
    "the database",
    "those policies",
    "ElDiario.es",
    "Antena 3 Noticias",
    "Europa Press",
    "Congress of Deputies",
    "Benicarló City Council",
    "Elche Local Police",
    "the channel of Spain's General Secretariat for Consumer Affairs and Gambling",
    "the Ministry of Labour",
    "Maldito Bulo",
    "receiving Premium subscriber \"boosts.\"",
    "Maldita.es Telegram channel",
    "Telegram's advertising policies",
    "the Digital Services Act",
    "more than 45 million monthly users",
    "@tginfo calculator",
    "@Carolina_Trade_notbot"
  ],
  "textContent": "For one month, we analyzed the ads that Telegram integrates into more than 40 public channels belonging to Spanish media outlets and public institutions, ranging from newspapers and television networks to municipalities and Congress. **In 63% of them, we found advertisements for investment services or online betting operators that are not authorized to operate in Spain** , contrary to Telegram's own advertising rules. In total, 13 advertising campaigns reached more than 280,000 subscribers across these channels.\n\nOn Telegram, users can encounter ads for **unauthorized investment platforms in the public channel of a government ministry** or **scams impersonating media outlets in the official channel of a local police force**. Telegram allows advertisers to choose the channels where they want their ads to appear, but it does not allow those channels to decide that they do not want certain types of advertisements. It also often prevents users from reporting ads that violate Telegram's rules or relevant legislation.\n\n## Ads leading to unauthorized investment platforms or sports betting services\n\n@Carolina_Trade_notbot is the name of one of the promoted bots that, in just a few weeks, appeared more than 25 times across 20 different Telegram channels belonging to well-known media outlets and public institutions. After interacting with the bot, users are quickly sent a link to \"Pocket Option,\" an entity that Spain's National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) has already warned is **an investment platform operating without authorization in Spain**.\n\nUnlike other platforms, Telegram's advertising system does not allow advertisers to redirect users directly to external websites, only to bots, channels, users, or apps within Telegram itself. Once users access these destinations, they are **encouraged to register on platforms that are** not authorized to provide investment services in Spain. This was the case for **63% of the advertising campaigns** we collected.\n\nOne of the most frequently displayed advertisements promoted **an application built using Telegram's infrastructure** with an interface impersonating the Spanish news outlet El Confidencial. When users clicked on it, they were shown fake interviews or news articles featuring Spanish celebrities discussing an unauthorized investment platform. In addition, Chrome's Safe Browsing protection classified the website as a \"Dangerous site\" after detecting phishing.\n\nThe remaining five advertisements analyzed were related to betting websites, mostly sports betting. None of their names appear in the database of licensed operators maintained by **Spain's Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling** , the authority responsible for regulating, authorizing, and supervising gambling activities in Spain.\n\nBeyond Spanish regulations, these advertisements also **violate Telegram's own advertising policies**. According to those policies, it is prohibited to promote \"content, products, or services associated with deceptive or harmful financial practices\" or \"online or offline gambling, gaming, or casino-based activities involving real money, prizes, or goods of any value.\" This latter category explicitly includes sports betting and sports prediction services.\n\nAds for sports betting prediction channels.\n\n## Advertisers can choose to promote themselves in channels of public interest\n\nEach of the ads analyzed was detected in 27 public channels belonging to media outlets, including ElDiario.es, Antena 3 Noticias or Europa Press, as well as Spanish public institutions such as the Congress of Deputies, the Benicarló City Council, and the Elche Local Police.\n\nTheir appearance in these specific channels is **not necessarily a coincidence**. Telegram's advertising system claims not to use users' personal information, but it does allow advertisers to target audiences in a very specific way: **explicitly selecting the channels where they want their advertisements to appear**.\n\nThis functionality makes it possible, for example, for a sports betting \"signals\" channel to select the channel of Spain's General Secretariat for Consumer Affairs and Gambling and advertise directly to its subscribers.\n\n## Disabling ads can cost thousands of euros\n\nTo stop seeing ads, a Telegram user would need to **subscribe to Telegram Premium** , which costs around €3.19 per month in Spain. Allowing the administrator of a channel such as that of the Ministry of Labour or Maldito Bulo to **disable ads for all subscribers is considerably more difficult**.\n\nCertain features and benefits available to Telegram channels depend on their level. **Only channels that reach Level 50 are allowed to disable advertisements** **within the channel**. One way to increase a channel's level is by receiving Premium subscriber \"boosts.\" Alternatively, channel administrators can obtain boosts automatically by gifting or raffling Premium subscriptions, methods that are hardly compatible with the public-interest mission of government agencies or news outlets.\n\n“Level 50 channels can remove them (ads) for their subscribers”\n\nHow many boosts are required to level up? The number **varies depending on the channel's subscriber count and its current level** , but Telegram provides very little information on how this system works.\n\nFor example, at the time of publication, the Maldita.es Telegram channel has approximately 4,000 followers and is at Level 0. To reach Level 1, Telegram indicates that it requires 9 boosts. One way to obtain them would be to gift annual Premium subscriptions (approximately €24 each) to three users, which would guarantee three boosts from each subscriber for the duration of their subscription. In other words, **increasing the channel by just one level would cost at least €72**. Reaching Level 50 could ultimately cost more than €6,000.*\n\n## No effective reporting mechanism\n\nThe only practical option in this situation is to try to ensure that the ads shown to channel subscribers are legitimate, comply with Telegram's advertising policies, and **notify the platform if they do not**.\n\nSome of the campaigns we detected stopped being displayed while we were collecting data. Among those that continued appearing day after day, we **reported four advertisements** for promoting \"Deceptive or harmful financial products\" or \"Gambling\" in violation of Telegram's advertising policies. Telegram never informed us of the status of these reports, and several days later, **at least two of the advertisements were still being displayed** , including the ad impersonating El Confidencial and promoting an unauthorized investment platform through fake interviews.\n\nFor another five advertisements promoting channels or bots, **Telegram did not even provide users with the option to report them** as potentially illegal or in violation of its rules. In other words, beyond having no control over the advertisements shown to their subscribers, channel administrators are also unable to notify Telegram that advertisements repeatedly displayed day after day should not be allowed.\n\nExamples of ads with and without the option to report\n\nTelegram is not subject to all the obligations of the Digital Services Act because it has not been designated as a \"Very Large Online Platform\" (VLOP), as the company claims it does not have more than 45 million monthly users in the European Union. Nevertheless, it is still required to comply with other provisions of the regulation regarding its public channels, including **maintaining effective notice-and-action mechanisms** that allow users to report illegal content. It is also required to **inform users** of the outcome of their reports and to **act diligently in enforcing its own terms and conditions**.\n\n_*850 boosts are needed, according to the_ @tginfo calculator_, which would be generated by giving away 284 subscriptions at a price of 23.99 (annually)._\n\n##  __Methodology\n\nFirst phase:\n\n  * We selected a sample of public Telegram channels from Spanish media outlets and public institutions with more than 1,000 subscribers and an active presence.\n  * We monitored and recorded ad campaigns that potentially violated Telegram's policies detected on these channels over the course of a month.\n\n\n\n\nSecond phase:\n\n  * We reported ads that continued to be displayed on the channels for violating Telegram's policies.\n  * After a week, we checked which ads were still appearing despite having been reported.\n\n\n\n<img src=\"https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29532210/thumbnail\" width=\"100%\" alt=\"table visualization\" />",
  "title": "Telegram promotes financial scams and unauthorized betting operators in the channels of Spanish media outlets and public institutions"
}