The Internet’s Biggest-Ever Black Market Just Shut Down Amid a Telegram Purge

A huge Chinese-language crypto scam service on Telegram has been forced to close after the messaging service banned thousands of accounts associated with it.
Known variously as Huione Guarantee, Haowang Guarantee and HWDB.la, the service allowed third-party vendors to sell money-laundering services, victim data, deepfake software and even gear such as GPS-enabled slave collars to Asian crypto scammers.
It facilitated more than $24 bnin t r an s a c t i o n s, a ccor d in g t orese a rc h er Ell i pt i c, w hi c h es t ima t es t h e f i gu re ha d r i se n t o$ 27bn by May 2022.
Telegram banned the service after being approached by Wired last week with fresh research from Elliptic on the scale of the scam service.
Scammers are likely to look for less well-policed messaging services as the next haven for their operations.

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