My Telegram account is hacked! How can I recover?

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Telegram accounts can be hacked

My Telegram account is hacked! Is it possible to hack into one of the most secured messaging accounts? Contrary to popular belief, your Telegram account can be hacked! And it is nothing to do with Telegram’s encryption or security. Although it is very rare, there are reports of Telegram accounts hacked by rogue governments (think of Russia and Iran) and resourceful hackers.

How can someone hack a Telegram account

Telegram uses a very strong industry-standard encryption of all messages between the client and their servers for normal chats. For secret chats, they use end-to-end encryption between the two devices. The encryption is very strong that it is totally impossible to hack an account with today’s resources, even for government law enforcement agencies. So how can hackers and rogue governments hack into Telegram accounts?

The problem lies not with the encryption system but with the account log-in protocols. Telegram accounts are tied to their phone numbers at initial creation. You can change this phone number. Every time someone logs in to their Telegram account on a new phone, their server will send an SMS message with a login code to the registered phone number.

Now, this is the real weakness of Telegram or any other secured messaging apps that rely on SMS for phone login. This SMS is not encrypted and can be read by the phone operator. So, for example, if you are in Iran and the government knows your phone number, all they need to do is to log in to Telegram on a new phone using your phone number. When the server sends the login SMS to your number, they can intercept it at the operator. Using that number, they can then successfully log in to your Telegram account on another phone.

The SMS protocol is highly insecure. If you have necessary expertise and resources, any hacker can intercept the Telegram login SMS messages and login to your account on their phone. They will then able to read old messages and check out your contacts. Only messages they cannot read are those in the secret chat, which are end-to-end encrypted between the two devices.

Another way to hack into your account is if someone (think of your girlfriend!) has access to your phone for a short while. During that time, he or she can log in to your account on his/her phone and use the SMS sent to you to log in to your account.

How can you know if someone has hacked into your account

Depending on the activities of the hacker, you may or may not notice the security breach. However, you may notice the following:

  • You are suddenly logged out from one or more of your device without apparent reason
  • You see messages that are not yours
  • Your profile picture or other profile information change without your intervention
  • You receive long in SMS without you logging in to your account

So how can you check if someone has log in to your Telegram account?

  1. Open Telegram on your phone. Click Setting. Click Devices in the Settings.




  2. You will see all current sessions (top panel) and all active sessions (bottom panel). Check if all of these devices are yours.




  3. If you see any device that you do not recognize, the chance is, someone has hacked into your Telegram account.
  4. You can terminate a single device from the lower panel or terminate all sessions.




  5. After terminating the unauthorized device, please follow the below steps to prevent someone from logging into your account illegally.

How can I prevent my account from hackers

To prevent someone from hacking into your Telegram account, you should improve your Telegram Privacy and Security Settings. The most important setting to change is to set up Two-factor authentication. Telegram’s 2FA is different from other 2FAs. It is just a second step where you have to supply your password in addition to your phone number to log in to your account. So even if someone has access to your SMS code, they still could not log in to your account without knowing your password.

The second setting you should set up is to hide your telegram phone number. Instead, use your user name to let other people contact you. If a resourceful hacker or a government agency doesn’t know your phone number, it would be difficult to intercept your login SMS.

Also, whenever you are going to talk someone sensitive, try using Telegram’s secret chat feature. Using secret chat in Telegram, you can make sure only your device and your contact’s device can read the secret messages. Even if someone have a device logged in to your account, they cannot see your messages as long as you are the one who starts the secret chat.

45 thoughts on “My Telegram account is hacked! How can I recover?”

  2. Natacha Adams

    My was hack someone is usinh my telegram app.. I can’t open any settings on my telegram app cause i can’t go into my telegram app… I startrf with adding my number and verified cise sent via sms but it says my acc is active on a other device… My name is Natacha and my number is 0712119654

    Reply
  3. Natacha Adams

    Plz help me my telegram codes is been sent to this email plz…. da*********7@gmail…plz i need assistance plz…. This person is using my telegram acc…

    Reply
  9. Arun Kumar Mishra

    My telegram account is hacked. My number is 9555686103 It says code sent to other device. Please help me to recover it

    Reply
  10. Jeslyn

    My account was hacked and I never add my extra password and I can’t change its, please let me know how can I change my password/

    Reply
  14. Saifel Amer Bin Husan

    My telegram was hacked today. I had uninstalll the appkication on my android.

    I can’t insrall back the appkixation. Please advice ne in this matter

    Reply
  16. ABDUL GHAFAR OTHMAN

    my telegran account has been hacked and someone has control over my account. if i tried to login then a message saying that too many attempts appeared. How to resolve.

    Reply
  17. John Mensah

    A hacker called Samuel Leach posted a job on Facebook, when I shown interest he said they will call to interview me on telegram. I then received a call asking for my telegram code and I willingly gave him. He is now using my number on telegram

    Reply
    2. Plavnovic

      It’s super scary that thomaskent885 at gmail com can just cut you off with no real explanation. It might be contract work, but human beings put their time and schedules into working for them. The deactivation situation will probably have to be challenged legally or something because one look at all of the YouTube videos about how they just cut people for all kinds of nonsensical reasons and severely hurt them and these people have no recourse and no means of fighting back. At the very least it should be common knowledge about how they will cut you like that out of nowhere, after recommendation of the name above at first try he was able to fix my account.

      Reply
  19. Daniel Teixeira

    I’m trying termine the session on my Telegram account in Russia but I have the message “For security reasons, you cannot end older sessions from a device you have just connected. Use a previous connection or wait a few hours” what could I do now?

    Reply
  20. Godfrey Mwendakazi

    There is some one open telegram account using my number, she told me to send comfimation code without knowing i sent it to her.
    So please help me to delete that account.
    My number +255783118877
    Please help me.

    Reply
  21. Ghanshyam

    I am trying to remove device who used my telegram account but it’s not remove i try 20 time the hacker send some msg from my telegram how to remove hacker device my telegram saying for security reaone we can’t remove this device

    Reply
  24. Syed Sagaff Syed Salim

    My telegram was hack and being use to borrow money yesterday. I tried to open saw all blank no contacts so I just unistall it. Can I check if it is still on using my account. Please recover for me to delete it permanently. I need confirmation on this. thank you. My emai is syedsagaff@gmail.con I hope for a reply. TQ

    Reply
  25. Tuhin Shubhra Tripathi

    Although I have not opened my telegram account but someone opened and hacked it and made secured with password that’s why I am unable to delete or deactivate it. How could the hacker do so? How can I get rid of that? Plz suggest.

    Reply
  26. Jackson Howard

    Even for the recognition THOMAS, thomaskent885 at gmail com skills is so underrated at least by most tech fans in general. I mean I get that there is stamina and all that involved in things like he does but being able to stand so far away and have the ability get the information needed with high speed as expected to hit it perfectly with a paddle just over the net is extremely impressive.

    Reply
  27. Annette

    My telegram account is hacked. Cant log in. Show different email adress. Have deleted frim my phone. My friends now get whattsapps from hacker.

    Reply

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