How to Recover a Hacked Telegram Account: Step-by-Step Guide

Telegram has become the subject of several hacking attempts on numerous occasions, contrary to the claim made by Telegram that their accounts are safe and secure. In such cases however, a hack or a complete takeover of the account means that the individual has to lose no time in recovering their account as soon as possible. This article encompasses everything regarding how to spot a hacked Telegram account, recover it and at the same time take the necessary steps to protect the account.

Recognize the Signs of a Hacked Account

Now that we are on the same page regarding hacked accounts, we can focus on our next point which is the steps to follow in order to take care of the hacking attempt or complete takeover of a user account.

Account Activity: The biggest red flag in the context of a compromised account is the presence of activity which does not correspond with the owner of the account. Such activities may include sending messages or making changes and joining groups or channels. The presence of unauthorized access can be established through these unusual alterations.

Login Notifications: Regardless of whether you were aware of logging in or not, your account displaying ‘registered from’ notifications for new devices or new locations means your account is in vulnerable hands and requires immediate protection.

Forced Log Outs: Now, if someone tries to hack your account but is not successful in logging in for whatever the reason may be, or you forgot to log out, and have learned where to find the log out button odds are they will log you out. Such a situation could appear out of nowhere, and there could be a lack of reasons given for it.

Identifying these unusual activities during the initial stages provides the opportunity to nip the problem in the bud, so the destruction can be controlled.

Immediate Steps to Secure Your Account

If someone still manages to break through your impeccable account security, you’re left with a locksmithing task, aka an emergency response plan. Here are 5 urgents that you can do:

Terminate Suspicious Sessions: Once logged into your Telegram account, navigate to the Settings > Devices tab. If notes of suspicious or unrecognized devices are present on this ledger, click on Terminate All Other Sessions.

Enable Two-Step Verification: if you’ve added an email linked to your 2-step verification to your two-step verification account services, you might want to change the email addressed linked to the account. Before making any of these changes ensure that all information pertaining to your email address is safeguarded.

Change Linked Email: If you’ve enabled two-step verification and linked an email, it’s advisable to update the email linked to the account. Ensure that your email account is also secure with strong passwords and two-factor authentication enabled.

Regain Access if You’re Locked Out

If you cannot log into your Telegram account, try the following steps:

Contact Telegram Support: If you’re still locked out, you’ll need to reach out to Telegram’s support team. Go to Telegram’s Support Page, or email [email protected]. In your message, include your account details (phone number, associated email) and explain the situation clearly. Telegram support may ask you for additional verification to confirm your identity.

Attempt a Standard Login: Open the Telegram app and attempt to log in with your phone number. Telegram will send a verification code via SMS. If the hacker has changed your phone number on the account, this step won’t work.

Check and Clean Your Device of Potential Malware

Moreover, malicious hackers find their way into someone’s account using malicious programs and spyware that are installed on their device. In order to prevent that from happening to you, here is what you can do:

Install Antivirus Software: Using reliable third-party online security programs, scan your computer for viruses and other harmful apps. Malware can assist hackers in gaining access to all your information from bank account details and even Login credentials, which is why it is crucial to remove them.

Uninstall Any Programs Or Applications: Make sure to remove any programs or applications that you do not recognize or find unusual. Many malware programs are disguised as simple applications.

Selling or sharing your device will decrease the chances of a hacker gaining access to your telegram account or other sensitive data that you may possess.

Strengthen Security After Regaining Access

When you have regained control over your account, you should also do several additional things to secure your account:

Step to Recheck Privacy Settings: Verify or set your privacy in settings > Privacy and Security options tab. It has options like who can see or view your profile picture, or status or can get your phone number. Additionally, you can also decide as to who can contact you, who can join you in groups or who can view your activities.

Set Up Security Alerts: Set Telegram up in such a way that it alerts you when new sessions are opened. These alerts inform you that if anyone tries to misuse the account in the future then their attempts will be out in the open.

Prevent Future Hacking Attempts

Hacking situations arise when you neglect the security measures. Some of the rules that can be followed are:

Do Not Share Verification Codes: A verification code is sent to a telescopic phone device and is not meant to be shared with other users.

Make Sure to be Aware of Phishing Scams: Password thieves or hackers like to trick you into giving your personal information through other means which should be avoided by tactfully placing suspicious links or involving unknown contacts.

Create Complex Passwords and Securely Save Them: Go for passwords that are heavy and combative lock. Passwords that have easily guessable words as a part of them should be avoided and installing a trusted password manager should be considered.

Additional Security Features to Consider

In addition to the mentioned features, Telegram provides the following set of tools with which to further improve security:

Secret Chats – Whenever the conversation has to be protected in the most secure way, use the Secret Chats feature of Telegram. It is worth noting that Secret Chats are end-to-end encrypted and can be set up to self-destruct after a pre-defined duration.

Auto-Logout Feature – A General Terminate All Other Sessions option should be utilized frequently in order to safeguard your login on several devices to a bare minimum. This habit ensures that there is no logging in into your account from an unpermitted device.

Backups and Archiving: If it is the case that it is being referenced, important information should be backed up on a regular basis. With that said, it should be understood that Telegram might not use any ancient cloud style backups like what some other messaging applications use, for this would put the security of the app at stake. Rather, ensure that sensitive backups are safely stored in a secure area.

Conclusion

Dealing with a hacked account on Telegram can be rather tiresome, however, using the previously mentioned approaches will allow you to sit back and recover your access while being able to feel secure. In this way, once your device is secured and the measuring of two-step verification has been applied, further hacking is likely to be impeded. Moreover, adjusting your privacy options along with a thorough application of security measures will facilitate an overall decrease in the number of successful attacks in the future. Always be careful and ready to take charge if the security of your Telegram account is compromised.