Telegram moderation kit
Anti-Spam Setup for a 3,000-Member Digital-Nomad City Group
Project: Telegram moderation kit for city-based digital-nomad groups
Tags: telegram, moderation, digital-nomads, community, anti-spam
A 3,000-member Telegram group for digital nomads in one city is useful for housing leads, co-working tips and weekend meetups. It is also a magnet for housing scams, fake visa agents and "relocation consultant" spam. This write-up is the setup we use so volunteers can sleep.
Scams that hit nomad city groups
- Housing deposits. A "landlord" asks for a deposit before a viewing, then disappears. Photos are stolen from real listings.
- Visa and "residency agents". Accounts DM new members offering guaranteed visas for an upfront fee.
- SIM / eSIM phishing. "Government registration" links that harvest passport scans.
- Job and "client" bait. Fake remote-work offers that ask for a "training fee" or account access.
- Airport pickup and money-exchange scams aimed at people who just arrived.
Group setup
- Private group with join requests. Question: "Which city are you based in this month, and are you looking for housing, work or community?"
- Hide the member list so agents can't harvest everyone who just landed.
- Topics: Housing, Visas & Admin, Coworking, Meetups, Scam Reports.
- Pin: "Admins never sell visas, housing or SIM cards by DM."
- Housing posts need a template: district, price, deposit terms, viewing method. Posts that only say "DM for details" are removed.
- Slow mode 30 seconds in Housing during peak move-in weeks.
Rules that matter
- No deposit before an in-person or live video viewing.
- No payment to personal wallets for "visa processing".
- Report scams in Scam Reports with the username and the pattern, not a public pile-on.
- Passport and ID scans never go to strangers in DMs.
Filtering while admins are in other time zones
Nomad groups span time zones. Most spam arrives when the local volunteer is offline.
虾宝 (Xiabao) is an anti-ad bot for Telegram groups that is free for group owners. Add @xiabaotg_bot as an admin with Delete messages and Ban users only. It removes the routine ad templates and scam links; humans keep the housing template and the join queue. Full setup notes are on the project URL set for this listing (xiabao.org).
Checklist
- Join requests on, member list hidden
- Housing template enforced
- Scam Reports topic live
- Admin titles set
- Anti-spam bot covering nights
Disclosure: built and documented by the 虾宝 (Xiabao) team.