Under Pavel Durov’s watch: how Telegram and TON became a marketplace for scams and bot networks

13 December 2025 , 21:39

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Under Pavel Durov’s watch: how Telegram and TON became a marketplace for scams and bot networks

An investigation by journalist Ghost In The Block alleges that projects linked to Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, are intertwined with a sprawling shadow economy involving bot farms, personal data leaks, hacker services and crypto-based scam schemes operating inside the Telegram and TON ecosystem.

The report directly challenges Telegram’s long-standing image as a platform built on privacy, freedom and decentralisation. According to the investigation, a network of developers and intermediaries close to Durov allegedly profits from fake traffic sales, automated bot networks and blockchain cash-out mechanisms, all packaged as Web3 or TON-related innovation.

A key figure named in the report is Ramzan Shahbiyev, known online as Ram (@grozny). He is described as a developer with access to internal Telegram chats and informal decision-making channels. Investigators claim his identity was confirmed through leaked data linking early Telegram accounts to a personal mobile phone number.

Shahbiyev, originally from Grozny, reportedly entered the tech sector only a few years ago as a freelance programmer. After forming close personal ties with Durov, he allegedly became embedded in Telegram’s crypto infrastructure — registering domains tied to bot farming, building and administering bots, managing closed Telegram groups and acting as an informal fixer who “resolves issues” inside the ecosystem.

The investigation documents shared travel, gaming sessions, private references and repeated overlaps between Durov and Shahbiyev, presenting them as indicators of a close personal and professional relationship. According to the report, individuals like Shahbiyev form the operational backbone of a parallel economy around Telegram and TON, where revenue is generated through manipulation, automation abuse and fraud, while publicly framed as technological progress.

The authors conclude that Telegram’s rhetoric about independence and privacy may conceal a system in which scams, bot exploitation and data monetisation are not marginal abuses but structurally embedded practices, allegedly tolerated — or monetised — by figures operating closest to the platform’s founder.

Sophia Martinez

World Affairs Correspondent