How to Moderate a Telegram Group and Stop Spam

The short answer

A clean group rests on three layers of protection:

1. Telegram settings: member permissions, slow mode, join requests, limited admin rights.
2. Bots: captcha for newcomers, link and keyword filters, automatic mutes and bans.
3. People and rules: a short set of rules, clear consequences and moderators who act fast.

No layer works on its own. Bots stop mass spam; people handle the borderline cases.

Member permissions

The group's Permissions section sets default rights for every member. A sensible baseline for a business community:

• Allow: text messages, photos, reactions.
• Restrict: links, forwards, stickers and GIFs if it's a working group.
• Disallow: adding members, changing the group info and photo, pinning messages.

Give admins only the rights they need. A moderator needs to delete messages and ban users; keep the right to appoint new admins with one or two owners.

Slow mode

Slow mode limits how often one member can send messages, from a few seconds up to an hour.

• Turn it on in a large group where the discussion becomes a flood.
• Use it temporarily during a live event, launch or incident, when everyone writes at once.
• Admins are not affected.

Join requests

With Approve new members turned on, people can't enter right away; each one sends a request. This is the most reliable filter against spam accounts.

• Approve requests manually if the group is small or closed, for example customers only.
• Or hand them to a bot: it receives the request, asks the person a question in private messages and approves it after a correct answer.
• Invite links have their own join request setting, which helps when different links bring different audiences.

Captcha and anti-spam bots

A captcha bot checks that a newcomer is human: press a button or solve a simple task. Fail within the time limit, and the bot removes them.

Anti-spam bots add filters for:

• links and mentions from new members during their first days;
• forwards from channels and messages with suspicious buttons;
• keywords and typical spam phrases;
• flooding: many messages in a short time;
• shared spammer databases that some bots maintain.

You can use a ready-made moderation bot or build your own when you need special rules, such as checking members against your customer database. In large groups, also check Telegram's built-in aggressive anti-spam option in the admin settings.

Community rules

Rules are a short pinned post, not a legal document.

• What the group is for: product questions, sharing experience, announcements.
• What's not allowed: unapproved ads, insults, off-topic posts, sharing other people's personal data.
• Consequences: warning → temporary mute → ban. The same for everyone.
• Where to go with personal issues: orders, payments, complaints go to the support bot or private messages, not the group chat.

Don't ask customers to post order numbers, phone numbers or addresses in the group. Move those conversations to a private channel.

How moderators should work

• Split shifts so spam doesn't sit there overnight and on weekends.
• When banning, use delete all messages from this user; spammers often post several before being caught.
• Answer members' questions. A group where moderators only delete and never help dies off.
• For large communities, turn on topics and separate support, discussion and news.