Students looking for an official U of T page on the social messaging app Telegram can expect to find crime and Mexican pornography instead. 

The Varsity has uncovered a pattern on the messaging and social media app Telegram, where networks engaged in illicit or criminal activity have been presenting themselves as official U of T channels to evoke trust or avoid scrutiny.

Telegram, based in Dubai, has become an international hub for criminal activity in recent years. 

Two Telegram channels identified by The Varsity used the name “University of Toronto,” and displayed the U of T logo as their icon. One appeared to be linked to an India-based contract cheating service and also hosts potential scammers targeting vulnerable students, along with a forger who charged 100 USD for fake TCards. 

The other channel belonged to a Mexico-based deep web pornography ring, which explicitly stated that it was “disguised as a university” to bypass content restrictions. 

The contract cheaters, the scammers, and the Post-Impressionist forger

One of the channels, created in 2023, included a link in its description to another Telegram channel belonging to TutorSolve, an India-based contract homework and assignment service. Tutorsolve offered to complete clients’ coursework for them, charging in one instance 200 United Arab Emirates Dirhams –– around 76 CAD –– for a 4,000-word assignment. 

Contract cheating has become a growing concern for U of T. Easy Edu, a company offering similar services to Mandarin-speaking students, is currently being sued by the university in federal court.

In January and February of this year, an anonymous user on the channel posted irregular job offerings, “Need 5/6 workers on immediate [sic] basis… 2 girls 1 boy required,” followed by “Permanent shifts,” “Both sin/cash,” and finally, “Only dm if you can start immediately.” 

In July 2023, a since-deleted account asked, “Hello… Any one looking for education loan[?]” Another user responded, “Is it for international students[?]”

Many members of the channel appeared to be international students — a group often targeted by scammers on apps such as WhatsApp, WeChat, and now Telegram.

The channel also hosted other illicit activities. In February, a user named “IDArtist23” posted, “Anyone need a custom scannable ID?” 

The user’s profile photo depicted a forged Massachusetts driver’s license labelled “ID Artist,” using Vincent van Gogh’s 1889 Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear as its headshot. 

In a direct message to The Varsity, IDArtist23 said a forged U of T student card would cost 100 USD or 140 CAD. They added that the fake card would not be able to be scanned because “It takes a lot of time to crack its barcode… the cost is tens of thousands of dollars.” 

Students have previously been caught with forged TCards when sending impersonators — often hired through contract cheating services — to take exams on their behalf. These fraudulent cards typically displayed the real student’s name but the impersonator’s face, making them difficult for invigilators to detect.

“Channel disguised as a University”

The other channel, which also used the name “University of Toronto” and displayed the U of T logo as its icon, had 62,234 subscribers at the time of accessing. This number may have been artificially inflated by bots, although at least several hundred users appeared to be active.

The channel was created on June 20 this year. That same day, the administrator posted, “It’s the final day of #UofT fall convocation 2025! 🎉Watch every #UofTGrad25 ceremony live at http://utoronto.ca/convocation.” The message was identical to one posted earlier that day on U of T’s X account. 

The following day, the administrator posted a message in Spanish containing a link to another Telegram channel called “Clancy Legiøn,” or “ClancyNoRules,” which primarily contains sexually explicit content. Since then, most messages on the impersonator channel were deleted shortly after being posted. 

Before deletion, a November 9 message contained instructions for purchasing access to an exclusive, “VIP” pornography channel. It advertised a price of 100 MXN — 7.65 CAD — to be transferred to a Mexican bank account traced by The Varsity to the state of Nuevo León state near the Texas border.

Another message included a sexually explicit video with “University of Toronto” embedded as a watermark. The accompanying Spanish caption translated to, “Channel disguised as a university.”

Messages also referred to previous channels run by the group that had been banned by Telegram. On the morning of November 12, the ClancyNoRules channel became inaccessible, displaying the notice, “This channel can’t be displayed because it was used to spread pornographic content.” Later that day, the channel reappeared. 

In October, the administrator of “ClancyNoRules” messaged the channel, “The creation of my groups has never been intended to harm content creators. While we filter everything for free, I’m always open to dialogue with creators to remove their content. (I’ve already worked with several),” and included a warning to “beware” of scammers frequenting the channel.

The impersonator “University of Toronto” channel appeared to function as a central hub for the operation. While it did not host pornographic content directly, it provided links to other channels that did — and it remained online even when those channels were inaccessible.

The Varsity found no clear reason why U of T was chosen as the group’s cover.

A university spokesperson wrote to The Varsity, “The university does not use Telegram for official purposes. When the university is impersonated in any realm, we take action, including through legal means and the services of the platforms in which such impersonation takes place.

Matthew Johnson, a director at Canadian digital literacy NGO MediaSmarts, wrote in an email to The Varsity, “Unfortunately it is difficult for organizations such as universities to prevent impostor accounts; while there are tools for reporting them, both through email and within the app, large platforms such as Telegram often respond slowly or not at all.”

“While some social networks, including Telegram, do offer verified accounts, this is not always very helpful because verification policies frequently change and because many legitimate official accounts choose not to go through the verification process.”