Getting spammed with Telegram backlink offers in Semrush, are these harmful?

[Ludvig]

Hi, I am pretty fresh in the SEO space.

Been noticing a bunch of backlinks showing up in Semrush from what looks like Telegram link dealers, random sites with casino or crypto content linking to us out of nowhere. We never paid for them or requested them.

Has anyone else dealt with this? My main concern is whether Google treats these as negative SEO or just ignores them. I know you can disavow but wondering if it is even worth the effort or if Google just filters them out automatically.

[cassy25k]

Same here, I see those spammy backlinks all the time.

Google is pretty good at detecting and ignoring this kind of stuff, so you usually don’t need to worry. Disavow is only really worth it if you have a serious spam issue or a history of bad link building.

[Maj Jan Krosl]

I'm having the same issues. I just disavow the root domains every once in a while. Should be fine.

[CasinosBroker]

Same issue here. But Google ignores them.

[PaulEchere]

Yeah, as the guys above say - it's all over the place, same for exactly everyone.
Even if you go looking at expired domains, most of them also come with those spammy TG links.

IMO just ignoring them is the way to go - trying to disawow them is like fighting a hydra and they should not negatively affect your website.

[fonzi1022]

Google already knows and disavows them on their end. It's a never ending battle that isn't even worth doing.

[wonderpunter]

The whole WWW is drowning in those telgram links, don't worry about them. they only really show up on seo tools you wotn see them in search console.

[newcustomeroffer]

Pretty much any page that has a good presence on Google on an igaming search term has a stack of these links

[Chonpa]

I hate when this happens, because it is harder to track backlinks on ahrefs/semrush...

Also hope this are 0% harmful.

[wonderpunter]

I hate when this happens, because it is harder to track backlinks on ahrefs/semrush...

Also hope this are 0% harmful.

You just need to setup a best links filter it's frustrating but it works.

[Ludvig]

Appreciate the help guys! I will keep ignoring them.

[andrewc0]

I think Google mostly ignores these nowadays, so the impact is probably very small. Still, I usually disavow the worst spam domains occasionally just to keep the backlink profile cleaner.

[ARZ]

Same here, hundreds of them. Check Search Console, if google indexes many of these kind (which is not likely, coz he filters a lot), think about disavow, but it´s not important when it´s just a few

[alperseo]

Same pattern in TR market — got 14 Telegram outreach messages last month, all variations of "we run a network of 200+ DR 40+ sites, package $300 for 5 links". Spoiler: they're all the same network, PBN with rotating domain shells.

Three tells that catch them every time:
- They always offer "package pricing" instead of individual placement
- Domain examples sent are always recently-registered shells (check WHOIS — most under 18 months old)
- They never provide a sample placement URL until after payment

For the broader Semrush spam: the messages are scraped from Semrush contact data + augmented from BuiltWith for WP detection. If you've ever filled in contact info on any SEO tool, you're in their data broker network.

The actually-useful filter I've ended up using: ignore anyone reaching out to me. The legitimate link sources I use either require me to reach out first (marketplaces, niche forums like this) or come from relationship-based work. Anyone messaging cold with a backlink offer is, in my experience, 0% legitimate.

For people seeing these in Semrush: there's no way to filter them out at source, but the message log gets cleaner once you stop responding (they de-prioritize unresponsive emails after ~60 days).