Telegram App - how did they find me?

[MitchT]

At work there's no signal on my phone. Also, WhatsApp doesn't send or receive anything when my phone is connected to the work wi-fi. So, I installed Telegram to see if that would work. I kept it as anonymous as possible as the plan was to bin it off again if it didn't, so I didn't want to start making connections. No pic - nothing in my user ID or screen name to identify me and phone number hidden. Within hours a neighbour whom the OH and I are friends with had messaged me on there. How the hell did they find me?

[SteBrown91]

It connects to your contacts list so if someone in your contacts has telegram then they can see you

[the-norseman]

Yep connected your contact list, I'm pretty sure it will have sent them all messages saying "xxx is now on Telegram"

[x5tuu]

When anyone signs up to Telegram it auto-magically assess your contacts, and self-messages all people in your contacts who are also have the Telegram app and lets them know youve joined Telegram - there is no hiding at all

[judas]

Ah, so that's how my mentally unhinged ex-barber managed to message me on Telegram! Blocked and uninstalled post-haste!

[x5tuu]

judas said:

Ah, so that's how my mentally unhinged ex-barber managed to message me on Telegram! Blocked and uninstalled post-haste!

Did you go through the delete account process first? If not your account still exists and will be auto-deleted after 12mths (I think that's the default, I could be wrong though)

[r3g]

MitchT said:

At work there's no signal on my phone. Also, WhatsApp doesn't send or receive anything when my phone is connected to the work wi-fi. So, I installed Telegram to see if that would work. I kept it as anonymous as possible as the plan was to bin it off again if it didn't, so I didn't want to start making connections. No pic - nothing in my user ID or screen name to identify me and phone number hidden. Within hours a neighbour whom the OH and I are friends with had messaged me on there. How the hell did they find me?

They all do it. It's part of the T&Cs that you would have clicked "OK" on before the install screen. It's really fking annoying that you don't get any choice in the matter and the only way around it if you want to in stealth is either to delete all your contacts or use a different SIM where you haven't imported your contacts.