Telegram: 'The dark web in your pocket'
The 麻豆社's cyber correspondent Joe Tidy has been exploring how criminals use Telegram, after he inadvertently found himself added to dozens of the app's group chats and channels.
Several months ago, the 麻豆社's cyber correspondent Joe Tidy went onto the messaging app Telegram to investigate a story. Soon afterwards, he found he had been added to a Telegram channel focused on selling drugs. A short time later, he was added to one about hacking and then one about stolen credit cards. His Telegram settings had made it possible for people to add him to channels without him doing anything. Within a few months, he was a member of 82 groups - dozens of which were illegal.
This series of events got him thinking about how Telegram operates - especially in light of the recent arrest in France of the company's billionaire chief executive. Pavel Durov is being investigated for suspected complicity in allowing illicit transactions, drug trafficking, fraud and the spread of child sex abuse images to flourish on his site. (Image: Getty)
