The Scammers of Hate: How Telegram Accounts are Being Used to Sell Weapons in Anti-immigration Channels

"Hello, I recommend this dark market Telegram channel that offers special services such as issuing ID cards, residence permits, weapons (...)." This offer, which includes a link to another channel, can be found in response to messages calling for "iron" or urging people to "start carrying a gun to use it in these cases" in chats on public Telegram channels about politics and migration where disinformation is spread.

In what context are weapons being offered? Do these offers actually follow through?

To answer these questions, Maldita.es has analysed 610 messages offering weapons in open chat discussions across nine Telegram channels previously identified for spreading disinformation. An analysis of comments on posts from January 1 to August 31, 2024, shows that some users take advantage of content—particularly false claims linking migrants to threats against national and personal security—to offer weapons and “Glocks,” a pistol model, among other illegal products.

These are messages we have engaged with and which, according to the Guardia Civil, “are mostly scams.” Using bait-like text, they claim to sell cloned credit cards, driving licences, counterfeit banknotes, and firearms.

"Two Shots and It's Sorted": A Third of Analysed Arms Offers Appear in Anti-Immigration Chats

"This is the image of the killer of the 11-year-old boy from Mocejón. There are rumours about the family not being of Spanish origin, but we prefer not to share this until it is confirmed." This message was sent in a public Telegram channel, ‘Alt Right España’, after a crime committed in Mocejón (Toledo) in August 19, 2024, in which a young man stabbed and killed Mateo, an 11-year-old, while he was playing football. ‘Alt Right España’ is the fourth most active channel where comments promoting the sale of weapons have been identified.

From the very first hours after the murder, misinformation regarding the perpetrator's background and the nationality of his parents began circulating on social media.

The post, which is in a public Telegram channel, allows people who visit and access the channel to interact with the content through a chat. "It’s obvious he’s a Moor," "He looks like a Moor... let's see what they say," or "Hand him over to the people," are some of the comments found in the post regarding the Mocejón crime.

Amidst these comments questioning the nationality of the perpetrator—who turned out to be a 20-year-old Spaniard—other messages appeared recommending a Telegram channel where various products, including weapons, were allegedly available for purchase.

‘Alt Right España’ is not the only public Telegram channel where messages containing links to alleged arms sales channels have been found. The nine public channels where Maldita.es has debunked misinformation and identified such comments are: Herqles, Alvise Pérez, Vito Quiles, Alt Right España, El Aullido, David Santos, Verdades Ofenden, Alberto Caliu, and Natalia Prego.

Messages promoting alleged arms sales channels are present in posts with anti-immigration content, specifically in 223 out of 610 identified messages—more than one in three—according to an analysis by Maldita.es. Over 21% of these 223 messages link immigrants to physical assaults, more than 20% accuse them of criminal activity, and 18% suggest they are responsible for murders.

To classify these comments, we focused on posts centred on immigration that emphasised the alleged nationality of the individuals being discussed. The remaining comments were categorised based on their themes: European elections (10.8%), politicians such as Pedro Sánchez or Pablo Iglesias (10.5%), or wars and conflicts (4.2%). Other offers for these products were also identified in posts simply promoting books or interviews.

Within the same anti-immigration posts shared in these channels, user comments alternate between calls for "violent justice now, we must find this scum and make them disappear," "two shots and it's sorted," or claims that people should "start carrying a gun to use in such cases," alongside others promoting supposed arms sales channels. Some messages specifically offer "Glocks," a well-known pistol model.

The format in which messages are presented on social media and Telegram—images, videos, and short messages—is a fundamental characteristic that facilitates radicalisation and the spread of hate, explains Luis Miguel Sánchez, a professor in the Department of Personality, Evaluation, and Psychological Treatment at the University of Salamanca, to Maldita.es. The expert notes that users often repeat and encode phrases, a key tactic to evade hate crime detection on certain social networks. When speaking to them, we found that the supposed sellers use the same expressions, such as "brother" or "my friend."

Luis Miguel Sánchez states that users promoting these products may aim to "fuel radical discourse as a way to strengthen their ideology and provoke extreme acts, or they may be seeking a business opportunity." He adds that, due to Telegram's policies, they mainly pursue the latter.

"Telegram is an uncooperative and opaque environment when it comes to investigations, where anything is offered, and scammers take advantage of this." This is how the Arms Trafficking Group of the Guardia Civil's Information Bureau described Telegram to Maldita.es.

This department states that, in the case of weapons, "the majority of the content available is  some form of scam." They also explain that they have detected these cases not only through their own monitoring but also through public collaboration: "Anyone browsing and coming across such content finds it alarming and reports it to us."

Regarding platform moderation, cybersecurity experts consulted agree that no one really knows how Telegram's moderation system works. The platform's low level of content moderation and the anonymity it offers have enabled cybercriminals to move onto it, according to these experts.

The Modus Operandi of the Alleged Scammers

The alleged scammers send bait messages in chats within public Telegram channels, promoting illicit assets along with a link redirecting to the supposed sales channel and a contact person. Once accessed, anyone can see images of the purported services and products available.

Maldita.es started a conversation with some of these supposed sellers, impersonating an interested buyer, to analyse how they interact. When introducing ourselves as potential firearm buyers, the first questions they asked were what type of weapon we wanted and where we were located. In some cases, these accounts are the ones who start conversations with their new followers.

The context in which these promotional messages appear and the photos of weapons they post provide the necessary clues for the Arms Trafficking Group of the Guardia Civil's Information Bureau to determine that these are scams. "These are not first-hand photographs; those are images downloaded from the internet and other forums, which they then present as if they possess them," explains the department.

The presumed scammers send images and videos of alleged customers who have received their orders, as well as supposed new products for sale, as a strategy to convince their new contacts to make a purchase. However, these images are taken from social media accounts and forums such as Facebook, Pinterest, or Reddit. Another characteristic of their modus operandi is offering large discounts on their products.

One of the accounts with which Maldita.es engaged in conversation to simulate interest in purchasing a pistol has been tagged by Telegram as a "scam," with its bio stating that "many users reported this account as a scam or fake account." The channel has since been deleted.

Some Channels Have "Anti-Spam Bots" to Remove Such Messages

Among the 610 identified posts, Maldita.es has detected up to 60 different channels allegedly selling weapons and other illegal products. However, as of March 25, 2025, six are still active. The rest have been deleted or are no longer available, but Maldita.es has archived them. The administrators of these channels may have removed them, or Telegram may have identified them as "scams." Nevertheless, as of this investigation’s publication, some chats still feature new messages promoting alleged sales channels.

Months after these promotional messages were posted, attempts to access some of them display a text stating: "This channel cannot be displayed because it violated Telegram’s terms of service."

Many of the bait comments posted in these chats are also no longer available as of March 2025. Some were deleted by the channels themselves. One example is the ‘Alt Right España’ channel which, in September 19, 2024, assured its followers that they were not deleting comments but had "an anti-spam bot to remove scams."

The channel of the MEP Alvise Pérez, another one where Maldita.es has debunked misinformation and identified messages offering weapons, also has such anti-spam bots, which appear in the channel’s ‘Administrators’ section alongside Alvise.

Annex: Some Screenshots of the Messages Promoting the Channels of Alleged Sale of Illicit Assets