diff --git a/server.js b/server.js
index d33d845..45be1fe 100644
--- a/server.js
+++ b/server.js
@@ -163,9 +163,34 @@ function sendTelegram(text, topicId, replyMarkup) {
 }
 // Same bot, any chat: the team forum, or the public payment-proof channel
 // (config.telegramProofChatId — the bot just has to be an admin there).
+// Last-resort duplicate guard, at the point of send.
+//
+// 2026-09-18: members saw the same payout line posted twice in the proof channel and the
+// shared payments topic — "did this person get paid twice?" The money was always right; only
+// the announcement doubled. The indexer now has a durable announce-once key per on-chain
+// event, which is the real fix, but a payment feed is the last place to rely on a single
+// layer: anything upstream that replays an event would put a second receipt in front of
+// members and make them doubt the ledger. So the sender itself refuses to post the same text
+// to the same chat twice within the window. Distinct events never collide — every line
+// carries its own ids, amount and transaction hash.
+const TG_RECENT = new Map();
+const TG_DEDUPE_MS = 15 * 60 * 1000;
+function tgSeenRecently(chatId, topicId, text) {
+  const k = String(chatId) + '|' + String(topicId || '') + '|' + text;
+  const now = Date.now();
+  if (TG_RECENT.size > 500) for (const [kk, ts] of TG_RECENT) if (now - ts > TG_DEDUPE_MS) TG_RECENT.delete(kk);
+  const prev = TG_RECENT.get(k);
+  if (prev && now - prev < TG_DEDUPE_MS) return true;
+  TG_RECENT.set(k, now);
+  return false;
+}
 function sendTelegramTo(chatId, text, topicId, replyMarkup, parseMode) {
   const c = getConfig();
   if (!c.telegramBotToken || !chatId) return;
+  if (tgSeenRecently(chatId, topicId, text)) {
+    console.warn('telegram duplicate suppressed:', String(text).replace(/\s+/g, ' ').slice(0, 90));
+    return;
+  }
   // No link previews: payout/team-build posts carry Polygonscan links, and the
   // preview card tripled the height of every message in the group.
   const payload = { chat_id: chatId, text, disable_web_page_preview: true };