Most spam problems in Telegram groups are settings problems. Telegram ships real anti-spam controls, most admins never open them, and the gap between default and configured is the difference between a clean group and a nightly cleanup shift. This is the complete checklist, from the switches built into Telegram to the layers you add when the group gets big enough to be a target.

Native Telegram settings to change first

Open your group's settings and work through these before touching any bot:

• Turn on Aggressive Anti-Spam. Groups over 200 members get this toggle under Administrators. It uses Telegram's own spam heuristics and quietly removes obvious junk. It is off by default.

• Restrict new members. Enable slow mode for the first hours, and limit who can send links and media. Most spam waves post links in their first minute in the group.

• Disable joining via link preview scraping. Use an invite link with approval required if your group is under active attack. Join requests give you a checkpoint.

• Lock down forwarding and mentions if your community does not need them. Mass mentions are the cheapest attention hack spammers have.

• Set a public username only if you need discovery. Public groups get scraped and targeted more. Private groups trade growth for quiet.

Permissions that stop spam before it posts

Telegram's permission system is blunt but effective when set deliberately. The pattern that works: new members can read and send plain text, nothing else. Links, media, polls, and forwarding unlock either after a time window or manually. That single pattern kills most drive-by spam, because throwaway accounts do not wait around to earn permissions.

Add a join gate

A captcha bot at the door filters the laziest bots. Shieldy and similar gates ask new members to tap a button or solve a simple challenge before they can post. It is worth having and cheap to run. Know its ceiling: captchas verify that a human is present, and much of today's spam is posted by cheap human-driven accounts that pass every captcha ever made. We covered where each gate fits in our ranking of Telegram moderation bots.

Add a rule-based moderator

Rose or a similar bot gives you banned words, flood limits, and warn systems. Configure the basics: a short blocklist of your niche's recurring scam phrases, a flood limit around five messages per ten seconds, and auto-mute escalation. This layer handles the repetitive noise so your human mods do not have to. Its ceiling is the same one every keyword tool shares, and we wrote about it honestly in the Rose alternative breakdown: blocklists only catch the scams that already burned someone.

The layer settings cannot give you

Everything above filters by content and rate. The attacks that actually hurt communities in 2026 pass all of it: an aged account that joins quietly, waits, then DMs your newest members pretending to be support. A wave of accounts posting a link on a domain registered this week. Nothing in their words trips a filter.

Catching that requires scoring behavior: account age, join patterns, posting cadence, link reputation, coordination across channels. That is the job collony.ai's Telegram moderation does, and it is why groups in crypto and betting run it on top of their existing setup. Every setting on this checklist still matters. The behavioral layer is what covers the gap the checklist cannot close.

The complete checklist

• Aggressive Anti-Spam: ON

• Slow mode: ON for new or attacked groups

• New member permissions: text only, links and media locked

• Join gate: captcha or join-request approval

• Rule bot: blocklist, flood limit, warn escalation

• Admin hygiene: anonymous admins reviewed, admin list short

• Behavioral layer: on, if your group is big enough to be a target

Settings are the foundation, not the whole answer. When spam still gets through, our guide to stopping spam in a Telegram group covers the bot layer and what to do during a live wave.

Frequently asked questions

What is Telegram's Aggressive Anti-Spam mode?

A built-in filter for groups over 200 members that removes messages Telegram's own systems flag as spam. It is free, it is off by default, and it should be your first switch.

Do captchas stop Telegram spam?

They stop basic bots. Human-driven spam accounts pass captchas easily, which is why a join gate helps but cannot be the whole answer.

What are the best permission settings for a public Telegram group?

New members: plain text only, no links, no media, no forwarding. Unlock the rest after a time window. Most spam is posted within the first minute of joining, so the window does the work.

Why do I still get spam with all settings enabled?

Because settings filter content and rate, and modern spam attacks behave normally until the moment they strike. Catching them requires watching behavior: account age, coordination, link reputation. That is a different layer than settings.