Telegram is growing like moss 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 being able to use it by hiding your phone number. My experience is a little different: every day i get 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 messages from strangers started coming in. First in Russian, then from all over the world, including porn, viruses, charlatans and various scams. And there is no option to avoid it which has no but.
Welcome to my telegram
Over the years that I have been using Telegram, the results have been positive. The app does basically the same as WhatsApp, but better in almost every aspect. 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. Everything was fine, until sometime in 2020, when I started to receive messages from strangers.
At first, most of the messages were in Russian. Due to 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 on the kettles, I 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 of them Russians, try to sell me teapots / kettles on Telegram. I already have one, cyka blyat! pic.twitter.com/gXBZVdK2RY
– Ivan Ramirez (@ivan_r) August 30, 2020
Then came the charlatans, crooks and the spam of a lifetime. Two different people, separated by several days, wrote to me claiming to be “famous writers” looking for information for his new book. I accompanied them with a few messages to see what the end goal was, even though they and I ended up getting bored. I suspect they would be looking to obtain personal data and / or copies of personal documents, although I will remain in doubt … until the third arrives, I guess.
It didn’t take long for the Nigerian crooks Or at least the 2020 version of the same old scam: the promise of a reward after helping release a large sum of money. The scam circulated by email, jumped on social networks and is now in instant messaging, on Telegram. Renewed or die.
Nigerian crooks take to Telegram pic.twitter.com/893SX9UzQB
– Ivan Ramirez (@ivan_r) August 30, 2020
Therefore, the leap into 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 in Italy, in Russia and in any other corner of the planet.
Every time I open archived chats, I don’t know what I’m going to find. Sometimes there are clueless people, wildcards, or straight pornographic photos, including a dick photo.
Not only that, but some of them They started the chat by sending me suggestive or straight nude photos. Of course, it wasn’t just women or people pretending to be women: after decades of surfing the net, that’s how I got my first dick pic.
Today they sent me the first dick pic: ‘( pic.twitter.com/0Mcc9ym11A
– Ivan Ramirez (@ivan_r) July 2, 2020
Not all of my dear strangers were malicious. Some of them clearly they had been mistaken for a person or they were just looking to chat with whoever was on the other side. Since I started to receive messages, the most repeated without a doubt is a simple “Hello” or, in Russian, “Привет”.
Three recent articles Getting a message from strangers every now and then is not a problem. The problem is the number of messages, which does not stop the download. Today I have had 14 stranger conversations, and the average for the last few days is around 10 conversations per day, including attempts to start a secret conversation and voice notes that I’m afraid to reproduce.
The obvious solution is to ignore the messages and move on, although it wasn’t until Telegram 6.3 that the option to automatically archive conversations of strangers. This is a very useful option, which serves as a sort of spam filter although, like the spam filter, it’s handy to check back every now and then as soon as you haven’t had an interesting conversation. That’s when Telegram turns into 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 about the conversations of strangers on Telegram
Where do these people come from
Now where do all these people come from? The answer depends on the type of people we are talking about. Spam, crooks and those who try to send viruses through Telegram they probably have an automated system that creates conversations with automatically generated phone numbers or usernames. For example, this virus attempt I received a few days ago:
No thanks pic.twitter.com/RcoCTEhwwD
– Ivan Ramirez (@ivan_r) January 14, 2021
However, for better or worse, most of the strangers who talk to me on Telegram are not scammers, but distraught people. People who want to talk to their friend or cousin Ivan and end up talking to me. Why is this happening?
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 username, you’re more likely to have someone try to find their brother-in-law and end up chatting with you instead.
Telegram’s global search mixes its own contacts and accounts with a username And Telegram, Usernames are public and, after activating them, anyone can find you and start 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 return, 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 return anyone can find you in Telegram search
The difference between Messenger, Instagram or Twitter, in Telegram there are no chat requests. In Telegram’s fairly comprehensive privacy options, you can choose who can find you using your phone number, but not by username. In other words, if you have a username, anyone can open a chat for you and send you nonsense. It will be dropped off, yes, but the stupid thing stays there.
The fact that Telegram automatically archives messages from strangers helps a lot, although it is still a fix. Archived messages are not automatically deleted, so sooner or later you’ll end up going in and finding what they sent you. In apps with chat requests, at least you will only see the first message.
What can you do to prevent it?
Telegram conversations from strangers can happen two ways: via the phone number or, most likely, via the username. The first case can be easily avoided from Telegram’s privacy settings.
If they add you via phone number, you can avoid it in Telegram settings. Enter Privacy and Security, Press on Phone number and in the section Who can find me by my number ?, replace it with My contacts.
If they find you via username, you have several options. The first is to remove your username or replace it with something that is not common, such as a nickname (although you will need to change your name as well, since it is used in searches). This is an effective option, even if it leaves a bad taste in your mouth, as maybe you got a good username when registering it years ago when Telegram wasn’t so popular. than today.
Of course you can also leave everything as is, ignore messages and from time to time enter Archived Discussions do the housework (or not, it’s optional). I have been doing this for over a year now, even though what started out as a funny curiosity turned into something boring.
You have two options: either delete your username or be patient to ignore the messages that reach you.
There are two settings to help you make it a bit more bearable. The first, and most important, is Archive and mute, in the privacy and security settings, automatically archive new strangers chats. The second, in the notifications section, is to uncheck Include dumb cats, to avoid counting these threads as unread, so you can easily skip them.
What could Telegram do
As we have seen, as a user there is no really satisfying option to end Telegram chats with strangers without giving up anything in return, but it shouldn’t be hard for Telegram to tackle the problem in a future update. Here are some of the alternatives that could be incorporated:
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Include message requests, like in Messenger, Instagram or Twitter. If you don’t agree to the request, they can’t contact you.
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Add a privacy setting on profile visibility, like in Facebook or setting the phone number, in Telegram. That way, you would only be visible in searches if you want to.
All is not lost and Telegram is one of the apps that includes more news in each new version. The only thing left for us is to wait and, in the meantime, be patient, turn off the username or practice Russian. Я выбрал последний вариант.
