Bellingcat's Online Investigation Toolkit
  • About
  • Most Used
  • New Tools
  • ⚒️Categories
    • Maps & Satellites
      • Maps
      • Satellite Imagery
      • Street View
    • Geolocation
    • Image/Video
      • Reverse Image Search
      • Facial Recognition
      • Metadata
      • Misc
    • Social Media
      • Facebook
      • Instagram
      • Telegram
      • Tiktok
      • Twitter/X
      • Youtube
      • Other Platforms
      • Multiple Platforms
    • People
    • Websites
    • Companies & Finance
    • Conflict
    • Transport
    • Environment & Wildlife
    • Archiving
    • Data Organization & Analysis
  • 📖Resources
    • Guides & Handbooks
    • Education
    • Newsletters & Toolkits
    • Stay Safe
  • More
    • All Tools
      • 4plebs
      • 527 Explorer
      • About Maps and Satellites
      • ACLED
      • AllTrails
      • Apollo Mapping
      • Apple Maps
      • Archive.today
      • Atlos
      • Auto Archiver
      • AutoStitch
      • Azure AI Video Indexer
      • Baidu Maps
      • Bellingcat OpenStreetMap Search
      • Bing Maps
      • Blackbird
      • Blender
      • Bluesky Insights
      • BskyFollowFinder/Bluesky network analyzer
      • BskyThreadReader
      • Bulletpicker.com
      • CAT UXO
      • China-related resources
      • Chronotrains
      • CITES Trade Database
      • Companies House
      • Convert Geographic Units
      • Datawrapper
      • DeHashed
      • DiscordLeaks
      • Distill.io
      • DomainTools Whois Lookup
      • Earth Explorer
      • Earth Online
      • EDGAR Suite
      • EDGAR
      • Equasis
      • Etherscan
      • EU consolidated corporate registers
      • EU Sanctions Map
      • ExifTool
      • F4Map
      • FaceCheck.ID
      • FlightAware
      • Flightradar24
      • Forensically
      • Gaode Maps
      • GeoHints
      • Gephi
      • Ghunt
      • Global Fishing Watch Map
      • Global Forest Watch
      • Global Monitoring System - ECOSOLVE
      • Global Suppliers Online
      • Google Earth Engine
      • Google Earth Pro
      • Google Flood Hub
      • Google Lens
      • Google Maps
      • GovMap
      • GPSJam
      • Have I Been Pwned
      • Hitta.se
      • Hoaxy
      • Hugin
      • Hunchly
      • ICANN Lookup
      • ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database
      • ImportGenius
      • ImportYeti
      • Index Database
      • Instagram Location Search
      • Instant Data Scraper
      • Intelx.io
      • InVID
      • KartaView
      • Leak-Lookup
      • License Plate Maps
      • LittleSis
      • Liveuamap
      • Logseq
      • Lumen
      • Maigret
      • Maltego Graph
      • MapChecking
      • Mapillary
      • MapSwitcher
      • MarineTraffic
      • Merlin
      • Meta Content Library
      • MW Geofind
      • Name Variant Search
      • Namechk
      • NASA Firms
      • NASA Worldview
      • NeutrOSINT
      • North Data
      • Obsidian
      • OCCRP Aleph
      • Open Measures
      • Open Ownership
      • Open Source Munitions Portal
      • OpenCorporates
      • OpenSanctions
      • OpenSecrets
      • OrbTrack
      • Osint Tools Map
      • Overpass Turbo
      • PeakVisor
      • Picuki
      • PimEyes
      • Pinpoint
      • PixPlot
      • Planet Labs
      • QGIS
      • Quick geolocation search
      • Radar Interference Tracker
      • RAWGraphs
      • RootAbout
      • RuPEP
      • SanctionsExplorer
      • satellites.pro
      • Search by Image
      • Sentinel Hub Playground
      • ShadeMap
      • Shadow Finder
      • ShadowMap
      • Sherlock
      • Skopenow
      • SkyFi
      • Snap Map
      • Strava
      • Suncalc
      • Telegago
      • Telegram Group Joiner
      • Telegram Phone Number Checker
      • TelegramDB
      • Telemetrio
      • Telemetry
      • Telepathy
      • Tencent Maps
      • TGStat
      • The Information Laundromat
      • TinEye
      • TrueCaller
      • TruffleHog
      • Twitter Advanced Search
      • Twitter Location Search
      • Twitter Video Downloader
      • Umbra Space
      • UN Comtrade Database
      • UNOSAT Analyses
      • Uwazi
      • VesselFinder
      • Wayback Machine
      • Web Archives
      • What CMS
      • WhatsMyName
      • Who posted what?
      • Whoxy
      • Wikimapia
      • Wikipedia list of registers
      • WildEye
      • Wildlife Trade Portal
      • xIFr
      • Yandex Maps
      • Zotero
Powered by GitBook
On this page
  • URL
  • Description
  • Cost
  • Level of difficulty
  • Requirements
  • Limitations
  • Ethical Considerations
  • Guides and articles
  • Tool provider
  • Advertising Trackers

Was this helpful?

Edit on GitHub
Export as PDF
  1. More
  2. All Tools

Telegram Phone Number Checker

Command line tool for checking if phone numbers are connected to Telegram accounts and retrieving related information where available.

Last updated 4 months ago

Was this helpful?

URL

Description

The Telegram Phone Number Checker is a Python-based command line tool that takes phone numbers and uses the Telegram API to find information about the number. It does this by trying to add the number as a contact on your Telegram account.

When investigating a phone number of interest, this tool may help a user find more information about the owner of the phone number. If adding the contact is successful, the tool extracts public information that could include the account username, first name, last name, profile photo, and when they were last online.

View the full list of data fields the tool attempts to collect.

id, username, usernames, first_name, last_name, fake, verified, premium, mutual_contact, bot, bot_chat_history, restricted, restriction_reason, user_was_online, phone

The profile_photo can be optionally requested

If adding the contact fails, it could be that the person is not on Telegram or has disabled contact adding in their Telegram privacy settings.

Cost

Level of difficulty

Requirements

A Telegram developer account and API key.

Basic to intermediate experience with the Python programming language.

Limitations

The tool can lead to your Telegram account being blocked, which seems more likely if you use the tool for large numbers of phone numbers or if you use a VPN (that could be associated with spam activity). To mitigate this risk, it is recommended to avoid using your personal account with this tool.

Ethical Considerations

It is possible to gain access to people's names and images using this tool, and should be used as part of tightly scoped investigations. Users should be careful not to dox people they are investigating when sharing their findings.

Guides and articles

Tool provider

Advertising Trackers

Page maintainer

Galen Reich

Afton

Bellingcat article: , Miguel Ramalho

, Netherlands

Try it on Google Colab
Get the code from GitHub
YouTube Tutorial
"How Code Notebooks Enable Open Source Research"
Bellingcat