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BEWARE: do NOT add random Telegram bots to your groups!!! Some bots copy the phone numbers of the users and add them to spam lists. So do not get surprised if

BEWARE: do NOT add random Telegram bots to your groups!!! Some bots copy the phone numbers of the users and add them to spam lists. So do not get surprised if you get spam messages in your telegram from Russian phone numbers offering fake glasses or home made soda (yeah that happened to me!) This stuff just started -- no one is controlling it. I have no idea how to report this. Blocking offenders doesn't do any good after your number is on spam list. Hopefully, they do something about it.

antorobin 11y ago
Hi Smirnoff, Telegram bots are designed to run within a limited environment. Bots do not get access to phone number or anything such. Read more here --> https://telegram.org/blog/bot-revolution https://telegram.org/blog/bot-revolution https://core.telegram.org/bots/api https://core.telegram.org/bots/api
- Smirnoff 11y ago
  This is from Telegram Bot FAQ -->The bots can receive: - Service messages (people added or removed from the group, etc.) And that's with Privacy Mode activated!
  - antorobin 11y ago
    Btw by default, we have made our bot in such a way that one cannot add it to any group. :) Its completely personal with anyone who adds @icliniqbot from his telegram app.
anc84 11y ago
It is so terrible that all these services use phone numbers for ID. Couldn't they do some UUIDish thing instead?
- antorobin 11y ago
  Hi anc84, exactly it uses the UUIDish thing, not the other way around :)
  - anc84 11y ago
    Oh nice, so Telegram does not use phone numbers at all? That is good to hear (still never gonna use it as I want the full stack FOSS :} )!
luastoned 11y ago
Proper Telegram Bots (https://core.telegram.org/bots/ https://core.telegram.org/bots/) don't have access to your phone number. Maybe you added an account (that did not end in @xxxxbot) that was running on a custom backend.
- Smirnoff 11y ago
  That could have been the case. A friend of mine kept adding lots of bots to the group until several of us started getting random spam messages the next day.
- chrisan 11y ago
  How is @xxxbot enforced? I see in that article they have an official "BotFather" which doesnt seem to follow that rule.
  - luastoned 11y ago
    When you register a bot it has to end in ...bot, so any account that pretends to be one is easy to spot.

antorobin 11y ago

Hi Smirnoff, Telegram bots are designed to run within a limited environment. Bots do not get access to phone number or anything such. Read more here --> https://telegram.org/blog/bot-revolution https://telegram.org/blog/bot-revolution https://core.telegram.org/bots/api https://core.telegram.org/bots/api

Smirnoff 11y ago
This is from Telegram Bot FAQ -->The bots can receive: - Service messages (people added or removed from the group, etc.) And that's with Privacy Mode activated!
- antorobin 11y ago
  Btw by default, we have made our bot in such a way that one cannot add it to any group. :) Its completely personal with anyone who adds @icliniqbot from his telegram app.

anc84 11y ago

It is so terrible that all these services use phone numbers for ID. Couldn't they do some UUIDish thing instead?

antorobin 11y ago
Hi anc84, exactly it uses the UUIDish thing, not the other way around :)
- anc84 11y ago
  Oh nice, so Telegram does not use phone numbers at all? That is good to hear (still never gonna use it as I want the full stack FOSS :} )!

luastoned 11y ago

Proper Telegram Bots (https://core.telegram.org/bots/ https://core.telegram.org/bots/) don't have access to your phone number. Maybe you added an account (that did not end in @xxxxbot) that was running on a custom backend.

Smirnoff 11y ago
That could have been the case. A friend of mine kept adding lots of bots to the group until several of us started getting random spam messages the next day.
chrisan 11y ago
How is @xxxbot enforced? I see in that article they have an official "BotFather" which doesnt seem to follow that rule.
- luastoned 11y ago
  When you register a bot it has to end in ...bot, so any account that pretends to be one is easy to spot.