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telegram has this shitty feature where if anybody knows your public username they can add you to any group they want. this is the source of the shitty spam on

telegram has this shitty feature where if anybody knows your public username they can add you to any group they want. this is the source of the shitty spam on telegram right now. i was active in the crypto space and my username leaked. im now added to ton of spam and pump groups daily and i cannot block it. also you dont need admin rights to the channel, but you have to work with https://core.telegram.org/mtproto https://core.telegram.org/mtproto to scrape channels. i did some side project with this https://github.com/zerobias/telegram-mtproto https://github.com/zerobias/telegram-mtproto

gsich 8y ago
How is this different to other messages where your phone number is the username? Last I checked this was possible with Whatsapp too.
- disiplus 8y ago
  your phone number is not your username on telegram. the username on telegram is like a handle on twitter, with the difference that on telegram you dont have to have a username. you can message anybody in your contacts without username. but if you chose to have a username on telegram that username is public, and searchable. and the worst part is that anybody can add your username to any channel. so tltr: username on telegram is something you chose and not your phone number.
  - gsich 8y ago
    >your phone number is not your username on telegram yes I know, haven't written that. >and the worst part is that anybody can add your username to any channel my point was that other messengers have public usernames too, mostly their phone number and suffer from that same problem.
    - disiplus 8y ago
      > my point was that other messengers have public usernames too, mostly their phone number and suffer from that same problem. the difference is important. the thing that is happening with telegram is the expected behavior, you are supposed to be able to add random online users with their username to groups and contact them, that is also the point for a username so you don't have to share you phone number. with whatsapp your phone number is not supposed to be shared with random strangers, and sure if somebody has your private mobile phone number he can spam you but that is not supposed to happen, and i imagine that whatsapp blocks that behavior if you try to do in for multiple users. with telegram i saw groups with 50k members added this way because there is a api for this, but there is no api for whatsapp and i think they block you after x tries or reports. the problem is much bigger with telegram.
lozf 8y ago
In Telegram: "Settings, Security, Groups" has options to allow everyone or just your contacts to add you to groups. Contacts alone is usually adequate, but you can add exceptions.
- disiplus 8y ago
  thank you. why would "everyone" be the default setting, i cannot imagine.
  - davchana 8y ago
    The reason might be to add & increase the number of users in any group.
captn3m0 8y ago
yes, mtproto is such a horrible experience that almost every library is now abandoned. The closest was this Show HN about a Channel-> Blog generator that worked on top of telegram: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17617675 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17617675

gsich 8y ago

How is this different to other messages where your phone number is the username? Last I checked this was possible with Whatsapp too.

disiplus 8y ago
your phone number is not your username on telegram. the username on telegram is like a handle on twitter, with the difference that on telegram you dont have to have a username. you can message anybody in your contacts without username. but if you chose to have a username on telegram that username is public, and searchable. and the worst part is that anybody can add your username to any channel. so tltr: username on telegram is something you chose and not your phone number.
- gsich 8y ago
  >your phone number is not your username on telegram yes I know, haven't written that. >and the worst part is that anybody can add your username to any channel my point was that other messengers have public usernames too, mostly their phone number and suffer from that same problem.
  - disiplus 8y ago
    > my point was that other messengers have public usernames too, mostly their phone number and suffer from that same problem. the difference is important. the thing that is happening with telegram is the expected behavior, you are supposed to be able to add random online users with their username to groups and contact them, that is also the point for a username so you don't have to share you phone number. with whatsapp your phone number is not supposed to be shared with random strangers, and sure if somebody has your private mobile phone number he can spam you but that is not supposed to happen, and i imagine that whatsapp blocks that behavior if you try to do in for multiple users. with telegram i saw groups with 50k members added this way because there is a api for this, but there is no api for whatsapp and i think they block you after x tries or reports. the problem is much bigger with telegram.

lozf 8y ago

In Telegram: "Settings, Security, Groups" has options to allow everyone or just your contacts to add you to groups. Contacts alone is usually adequate, but you can add exceptions.

disiplus 8y ago
thank you. why would "everyone" be the default setting, i cannot imagine.
- davchana 8y ago
  The reason might be to add & increase the number of users in any group.

captn3m0 8y ago

yes, mtproto is such a horrible experience that almost every library is now abandoned. The closest was this Show HN about a Channel-> Blog generator that worked on top of telegram: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17617675 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17617675