Bellingcat Telegram phone number check
Bellingcat, a well-known open-source investigation group, has developed a tool called the Telegram Phone Number Checker.
Here's what you need to know about it:
Purpose: This is a command-line tool (primarily used by researchers and those with some technical skills) designed to check if a given phone number is associated with a Telegram account.
How it works: The tool uses the Telegram API to attempt to add the provided phone number as a contact. If successful, it can retrieve publicly available information associated with the account.
Information potentially retrieved: This can include the turkey telegram mobile phone number list Telegram username, first name, last name, profile photo, and last online status. It also attempts to collect other data fields like ID, whether the account is fake, verified, premium, a mutual contact, a bot, and any restrictions on the account.
Requirements: To use this tool, you will need:
A Telegram developer account and API key (which you can obtain from the Telegram website).
Basic to intermediate experience with the Python programming language as it's a Python-based tool.
Limitations and Considerations:
Privacy Settings: If the user has set their privacy settings to prevent adding them as a contact via their phone number, the tool will likely not find any information.
Account Blocking Risk: Using this tool, especially for checking a large number of phone numbers or when using a VPN that might be flagged for spam, could potentially lead to your Telegram account being temporarily blocked. It's recommended to use a separate Telegram account for this purpose.
Ethical Use: Bellingcat emphasizes that this tool can reveal personal information and should be used responsibly within tightly scoped investigations, with careful consideration of privacy and avoiding doxxing.
Availability: The tool is free to use, and the code is available on GitHub. Bellingcat also provides a Google Colab notebook that simplifies running the tool in a web browser environment.