This FAQ is for people whose accounts were limited after being reported for spam.
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- 1. What happened to my account?
- 2. Can I send any messages?
- 3. Why was I reported?
- 4. What could people report me for?
- 5. What do I do now?
- 6. I‘m definitely innocent, not even a ’hi' sent to strangers.
- 7. I know I was wrong, please release me now!
- 8. I‘ve just signed up and I’m already limited. What do I do?
Q: What happened to my account?
When users press the ‘Report spam’ button in a chat, they forward these messages to our team of moderators for review. If the moderators decide that the messages deserved this, the account becomes limited temporarily.
This means that if you have been sending unwanted messages to random strangers or posting spam in groups, you lose the ability to do so.
Q: So I can't send messages anymore?
No, it's not that bad. Limited accounts can send messages to people who have their number saved as a contact. You can also always reply to anyone who messages you first.
Q: Why was I reported?
Telegram‘s username search is not a tool for making new friends. People usually don’t like it when strangers contact them — so they will report you if they find your messages annoying. Please only contact people if you're sure that they are expecting messages from you. The same applies to adding people to unwanted groups and channels. In addition to this, group admins can also report users who post spam in their groups.
Naturally, all such reports are also checked by human moderators. If the messages contain spam, the account will be temporarily limited.
Q: What can people report me for?
For private messages, it really doesn‘t matter what you send, as long as the receivers find it unwelcome. It could have been a photo, an invite link or a simple ’hello‘. Please only send messages when you are sure people won’t mind getting them.
As a general rule, people do mind getting unsolicited advertisem*nts, links, invite links to groups or channels, random photos and, above all, anything related to commerce or online popularity. If you send them something like this, you will be blocked — and everybody else will be happy.
Moderators are more lenient when it comes to messages in groups, but anyone who sends spam or unsolicited advertisments will be limited.
Q: What do I do now?
If this happened to you for the first time (and you are not an industrial scale spammer), most likely your account will be limited for a few days or so. Please wait and consider that people want a peaceful time using our messenger.
Repeated offences will result in longer periods of being blocked. If you keep writing unwanted messages to strangers, you may lose the ability to do so forever.
Q: I read all of the above, and I‘m certain that I didn’t break any rules!
If you are sure that the limit was wrongfully applied to your account, please contact our @SpamBot.
Please forgive us for the inconvenience — even the best systems, algorithms and well-trained people can make mistakes sometimes.
Q: I know I was wrong, please release me sooner!
We're sorry, but this is impossible. We value the inner peace of Telegram users too much.
Q: I‘ve just signed up and didn’t send any messages yet, but my account is limited.
Some numbers may trigger an overly harsh response from our system, either due to their previous owners‘ activities or due to them being certain virtual/VOIP numbers. We’re sorry if this resulted in your account being limited for no reason.
If you think this is your case, please contact @SpamBot and tell it your story.
