OSINT on the Telegram Platform & Telegram Narco Geo-Chats

In this article, I’ll share some Telegram bots that can quickly provide valuable information about a target when searching for “Sibola,” and I’ll also touch on the topic of geo-chats. It’s now an undeniable fact that the entire IT crowd is active on Telegram, which means “netstalkers” have developed some interesting tools for easily and efficiently gathering information within the Telegram messenger. Enter OSINT bots.

I’m excited to share with you the Telegram bots I know about—some of which may be new to you. For some readers, this article might just make your day!

Advantages of Bots:

• Convenience and speed in obtaining and analyzing information in real time are high.
• Simple interface—everything is in one Telegram app (no need to learn anything new): just enter a number/email/IP/etc. and get your “prize.”
• No need to complete captchas.
• No need to enable Tor or go to the Darknet for databases.
• No registration required on specialized websites.
• Cool factor. Lots of high-quality, useful information available.

Neutral Bot Policy:

• Some bots may work in demo mode, and full functionality may require payment.

Disadvantages of Bots:

• Bots belong to their owners/developers/cyberpunks, so they can go offline, stop working, or disappear at any time.
• They may collect the information you enter.
• At the direction of Mr. Durov, bots can be removed from Telegram at any moment.

Bot List

• @egrul_bot
  This bot checks companies/sole proprietors. By entering a full name or company name, it provides the taxpayer ID (INN), business founders/partners, and tax reports. You can also search by INN to get the name/company. Database: Russian Federal Tax Service. No restrictions.
• @get_kontakt_bot
  This bot checks mobile phone numbers. It shows how the requested contact is saved in the phonebooks of your friends/colleagues. It’s similar to two GP apps. The main advantage: no need to register in a database or enter your own phone number to check “white walkers.” This bot helped me win a flag in the recent “Competitive Intelligence 2019” CTF quest. Currently, the bot is free, but it threatens to shut down if it doesn’t receive donations.
• @mailsearchbot
  By entering an email, this bot provides the open “password” for the mailbox. The database is huge and has been circulating on the darknet for a long time (about 1.5 billion accounts, data is current up to ~2014). Useful for creating or calculating personal charsets, for example, with JTR. The functionality is free. After my article was published and picked up by the media, the bot started masking passwords as “pass**.”
• @getfb_bot
  By entering a phone number, this bot provides a link to the person’s Facebook profile. The functionality is free, but the database is small.
• @buzzim_alerts_bot
  A search engine for the Telegram platform. It searches for mentions of usernames/channels in chats and articles. There’s an alert function if something pops up somewhere. For example, you can see which Telegram channels and chats are copying your posts from Habr, or check where a user’s nickname has been mentioned (don’t forget to change or remove your Telegram nickname regularly).
• @krnshowtimebot
  This bot checks if an IP address is on the Russian communications regulator’s (RKN) blacklist.
• @AvinfoBot
  By entering a mobile phone number, this bot provides the car’s license plate/brand, as well as a link and all ads on Avito.ru. In demo mode, a few searches/reports are free. The price for full functionality is “reasonable.” Some crafty users reset their Telegram accounts just to use this bot for free (deleting and re-registering the same phone number). The Avito database is either sold or scraped; in any case, Avito’s security should take note.
• @HowToFind_bot
  An intelligence bot. It shares OSINT secrets and techniques. Similar to other OSINT resources.

Telegram Narco Geo-Chats

Recently, Telegram introduced the geo-chat feature. However, the PR for this functionality appeared online before the actual chats did.

Dealers quickly took advantage: they emerged from the dark corners of the internet and (in my opinion) damaged the messenger’s reputation by creating drug-related geo-chats everywhere.

A few days ago, I sent dozens of reports/complaints to the Telegram team about these communities and also reported them to volunteers, hoping for a “crackdown.” But nothing happened—no one bothered to “reload the rifle” and destroy/ban these channel-chats.

By the way, using Fake GPS location (see point 21), you can spoof your GPS location and, for example, create a narco geo-chat in any area.

Conclusion

I’ve shared this information with you. I am not, in any way, encouraging you to abandon or replace your classic OSINT methods and techniques for gathering information. The point of this article is different—I hope you got the message. Have a wonderful day!

UPD: After this material was published, by the evening, the number of narco geo-chats in the “willow world” started to decrease.