Telegram is rising like foam these days as an alternative to WhatsApp which, among other differences, does not share data with Facebook and includes several additional privacy options, such as the ability to use it by hiding your number from phone. My experience is a bit different: every day I receive dozens of messages from strangers on Telegram, and there’s not much you can do about it.
I’ve been using Telegram along with other messaging apps since its inception in 2013, but it wasn’t until last year that I started receiving messages from strangers. First in Russian, then from all over the world, including porn, viruses, charlatans and various scams. And there’s no option to avoid it that doesn’t have a but.
welcome to my telegram
I have been using Telegram for years and the results are positive. The app basically does the same thing as WhatsApp, but better in almost every way. I use it to chat both with other people and with myself, to save notes, links or send things from my mobile to my PC and vice versa. All was well, until some point in 2020 when I started getting messages from strangers.
At first, most messages were in Russian. Because of the novelty, I tried to answer some of them with the help of a translator, to try to understand what was going on, but without much success. After what a dozen Russians wrote me messages about kettlesI came to the conclusion that it was a kind of pun in Russian, based on my name -Ivan- and inspired by a TikTok video.
Three different people, all Russians, are trying to sell me teapots/kettles on Telegram. I already have one, cyka blyat! pic.twitter.com/gXBZVdK2RY
-Ivan Ramírez (@ivan_r) August 30, 2020
Then came the charlatans, scammers and the spam of a lifetime. Two different people, days apart, wrote to me claiming to be “famous writers” looking for information for his new book. I indulged them for a few messages to see what the ultimate goal was, although eventually they and I got bored. I suspect they would seek to obtain personal data and/or copies of personal documents, although I will remain in doubt…until the third party arrives I guess.
They didn’t take long to arrive nigerian scammers or, at least, the 2020 version of the same old scam: the promise of a reward after helping unlock a large sum of money. The scam circulated by email, went around social networks and is now found in instant messaging, on Telegram. Renewed or die.
Nigerian scammers switch to Telegram pic.twitter.com/893SX9UzQB
-Ivan Ramírez (@ivan_r) August 30, 2020
From there, the jump to porn was inevitable. Suddenly, my telegram profile was irresistible to the opposite sex, although the profile picture is hidden from strangers. Women from all over the world wanted to meet me: from Uzbekistan to Italy, Russia and any other corner of the planet.
Every time I open the archived chats I don’t know what I’m going to find. Sometimes there are ignorant people, jokers or directly pornographic photos, dick photo included.
Not only that, but some of them they started the chat by sending me suggestive or straight nude pics. Of course, it wasn’t just about women or people posing as women: after decades of surfing the net, that’s how I got my first dick picture.
Today they sent me the first dick pic :'( pic.twitter.com/0Mcc9ym11A
-Ivan Ramírez (@ivan_r) July 2, 2020
My dear strangers weren’t all malicious. Some of them clearly they took for a person or they were just looking to chat with the person on the other side. Since I received the messages, the most repeated is undoubtedly a simple “Hello” or, in Russian, “Привет”.
three recent posts
Getting a message from strangers from time to time is not a problem. The problem is the number of messages, which continues to increase. Today I had 14 conversations with strangers, and the average for the past few days is around 10 conversations a day, including attempts to start a secret conversation and voice memos that I’m afraid to play back.
The obvious solution is to ignore the messages and get on with your life, although it wasn’t until Telegram 6.3 that the option to Automatically archive stranger conversations. This is a very useful option, which acts as a kind of spam filter although, like the mail spam filter, it is useful to check from time to time that an interesting conversation has not been eaten. That’s when Telegram becomes a box of chocolates, as Forrest Gump would say.
A quick social media search shows us that my case is far from isolated. other people complain stranger conversations on Telegram. It doesn’t happen to everyone, although it does happen to anyone.
Where are these people from
Now, where are all these people from? The answer depends on the type of people we are talking about. Spam, scammers and those who try to send viruses via Telegram
No thanks pic.twitter.com/RcoCTEhwwD
-Ivan Ramírez (@ivan_r) January 14, 2021
However, for better or for worse, most strangers talking to me on Telegram are not scammers, but ignorant people. People who want to talk to their friend or cousin Iván, and end up talking to me. Why does this happen?
The answer is global telegram search, which mixes its own contacts with Telegram accounts that have an active username, like mine. If you have a popular name as your username, it’s more likely that someone will try to find your brother-in-law and end up opening a conversation to you instead.
Telegram global search mixes own contacts and accounts with username
and telegram, usernames are public and, after enabling them, anyone can find you and open a conversation with you. In this way, one of the main advantages of Telegram over Signal or WhatsApp, being able to use it without revealing your phone number, becomes a double-edged sword: in exchange, you open the door to strangers or, at least, reveal the location of the door.
Telegram username allows you to avoid giving your phone to other people to talk to you, but in exchange anyone can find you in Telegram search
The difference with Messenger, Instagram or Twitter, in Telegram there are no chat requests. In Telegram’s rather extensive privacy options, you can choose who can find you using your phone number, but not by username. That is, if you have a username, anyone can open a chat and send you nonsense. It will be archived, yes, but the nonsense remains there.
The fact that Telegram automatically archives messages from strangers helps a lot, although this is still a fix. Archived messages are not automatically deleted, so sooner or later you will end up going there and finding what they sent you
What can you do to avoid it
Stranger chats on Telegram can happen two ways: via a phone number or, most likely, via a username. The first case can be easily avoided from Telegram’s privacy settings.
If they add you via phone number, you can bypass it from Telegram settings. Come into Privacy and Security, Press on Phone number and in the Who can find me by my number? section, change it to my contacts.
If they find you by your username, you have several options. The first is to remove your username or change it to something unusual, such as a nickname (although you should change your name as well, as it’s used in searches). It’s an effective option, although it leaves a bad taste in your mouth, because you might have gotten a good username by registering it years ago when Telegram wasn’t so popular. than today.
Of course, you can also leave everything as it is, ignore messages and occasionally enter Archived chats cleaning (or not, it’s optional). It’s what I’ve been doing for over a year, even though what started out as a funny curiosity turned into something boring.
You have two options: either delete your username or arm yourself with patience to ignore the messages that come to you
There are two settings that will help make it a bit more bearable. The first and most important is Archive and deactivate, in the privacy and security settings, which Automatically archives new chats from strangers. The second, in the notifications section, is to uncheck Include chats in silent mode, to prevent it from counting these chats as unread, so you can ignore them more easily.
What Telegram could do
As we have seen, as a user there is no really satisfying option to end stranger chats on Telegram without giving up anything in return, but it shouldn’t be difficult for Telegram to fix the problem in a future update. Here are some of the alternatives that could be incorporated:
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Include message requests, like on Messenger, Instagram or Twitter. If you don’t accept the request, they can’t contact you.
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Add privacy setting on profile visibility, as in Facebook or the adjustment of the telephone number, in Telegram. This way, you would only be visible in searches if you wanted to.
All is not lost, and Telegram is one of the applications that includes more new features in each new version. Now we just have to wait and, in the meantime, be patient, disable the username or practice Russian. Я выбрал последний вариант.
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