SINGAPORE: All it took was using the right keywords – fast cash, vape, SG, Geylang – to open up a criminal underworld on messaging app Telegram.
There were dozens of groups and channels, some with thousands of subscribers selling e-cigarettes, buying Singpass or bank accounts, and offering sex services.
Others collected orders for prescription drugs, advertised exotic pets for sale and offered to create fake medical certificates.
All these activities are illegal in Singapore.
Among the biggest groups were those offering sex services. Administrators posted pictures of women – sometimes in revealing clothing or suggestive poses – along with their height, weight and other details.
Rates and the women’s working hours were also included in the messages.
In one channel that had nearly 13,000 subscribers, administrators also put up screengrabs of conversations with customers.
“She is so good,” one customer wrote. “100000/10.”
REPORTING THE TELEGRAM GROUPSThe apparent lack of moderation of content on the app has come into sharp focus after Telegram’s founder and CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France on Aug 24.
He was charged with several counts of failing to curb extremist and illegal content on Telegram.
Durov is also accused of refusing to share documents with the authoritiesbarkadabet, as well as offences related to child pornography, drug trafficking, fraud and money laundering.
Groups and channels on Telegram offering sex services and prescription drugs.