Farmers' groups and agricultural cooperatives use Telegram for weather alerts, market prices, equipment sharing and joint purchases. Because members often buy inputs together and move real money, these groups attract fraud that can cost a season's profit. This guide covers the scams cooperative admins report most and the settings and rules that stop them.

Common scams in farming groups

Fake input sellers. Cheap fertiliser, certified seed or pesticide "direct from the factory", with prepayment required. The goods never arrive, or arrive as counterfeit product that damages crops.

Subsidy and grant links. Messages claiming a new government subsidy or drought payment, with a link to "register" that collects ID numbers, bank details or a fee.

Bulk-order prepayment fraud. Someone offers to organise a group purchase at a discount, collects deposits from many members and disappears.

Fake buyers. A "buyer" offers above-market prices for a harvest, then asks for a transport or inspection fee before collection.

Equipment rental and sale scams. Tractors or machinery advertised at low prices with photos copied from dealers' websites, and a deposit to "reserve" them.

Set up the group

1. Create topics: Announcements (read-only), Market Prices, Buy and Sell, Joint Orders, Weather and Advice. Money-related posts belong in Buy and Sell or Joint Orders only.
2. Make Announcements read-only and post subsidy and programme news there only after checking it with the official agency.
3. Turn on join requests with a question such as: "Which village or cooperative are you from?" Local admins can verify most answers quickly.
4. Name a joint-order coordinator with an admin title. Only this person organises group purchases, using the cooperative's account.
5. Hide the member list once the group passes 100 members, so fake sellers can't message everyone.
6. Restrict links and media for new members for their first days, through default permissions or a bot.

Rules to pin

• Group purchases are organised only by the named coordinator, paid to the cooperative's account.
• No prepayment to individual sellers you haven't met; pay on delivery or through the cooperative.
• Subsidy news is real only when posted in Announcements. Never pay a fee to receive a government payment.
• Ask for batch numbers and certification for seed and fertiliser, and check them with the supplier.

Checking a seller or buyer

• Ask for a business registration number and check it with the local registry
• Look for the seller on the manufacturer's list of authorised dealers
• Prefer pickup or cash on delivery for first orders
• Ask other members in the Buy and Sell topic whether anyone has traded with them

When fraud is reported

1. Remove the post and ban the account.
2. Pin a short warning in Announcements with the seller's name, phone number and the offer used.
3. Encourage affected members to report to the police and their bank with payment receipts.
4. Share the warning with neighbouring cooperatives' admins, since the same sellers move between groups.

Automatic filtering

Farming groups are busiest at planting and harvest, exactly when admins have the least time. An anti-ad bot handles the repetitive part: links from new accounts, copy-paste "factory price" ads, fake subsidy messages and mass mentions.

虾宝 (Xiabao) is an anti-ad bot for Telegram groups that is free for group owners. Add @xiabaotg_bot as an admin with permission to delete messages and ban users, and it filters ad and scam posts automatically, so members see prices and weather instead of spam. The Xiabao setup guide for Telegram groups shows the steps.

Checklist

• Topics with money posts limited to two
• Read-only Announcements for verified subsidy news
• Join requests with a village or cooperative question
• Named joint-order coordinator
• Member list hidden, new-member link limits
• Prepayment and subsidy rules pinned
• Anti-spam bot running

Disclosure: written by the 虾宝 (Xiabao) team, which maintains the bot mentioned above.