How to report someone on Telegram, starting from the message
Short answer. How to report someone on Telegram: open the chat, tap one of their messages on Android (press and hold on iPhone, right-click on desktop), choose Report and pick the reason Telegram offers. If a stranger messaged you first, the bar across the top of that chat reports the conversation as spam. Bots, groups and channels also carry Report in their profile menu. A moderator then decides whether the account is limited, labeled or banned.
People ask how to report someone in Telegram and get two kinds of wrong answer. Some guides send them to a Report button on the person’s profile, which Telegram’s apps reliably show only for bots, groups and channels. Others say to forward spam to @SpamBot, the bot a reported account uses to appeal. Telegram’s own FAQ starts somewhere simpler: the message.
The message is where the evidence sits. A moderator reads the messages you selected and the reason you picked, then applies Telegram’s rules, so a report is only as strong as what it points at. Where an in-app report cannot reach, such as the same material copied into Google results or a rights claim that needs proof, the work moves to formal content removal requests.
On 5 September 2024 Telegram replaced an FAQ answer that read “All Telegram chats and group chats are private amongst their participants. We do not process any requests related to them” with one saying every Telegram app has Report buttons for flagging illegal content to moderators.TechCrunch, Manish Singh, “Telegram quietly enables users to report private chats to moderators after founder’s arrest,” 5 September 2024.
How do you report someone on Telegram?
Open the chat where the person wrote to you, select the message that shows the problem, choose Report and work through the reasons Telegram offers, adding a comment if the last screen asks for one. The moderator receives that message and your reason. Report the clearest message rather than the first one, and save your own copy of the chat before you do anything else.
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Save the chat before anyone deletes it
Screenshot the messages with the sender’s name and the time visible, and copy their @username or t.me link from the profile. In a one-on-one chat either person can delete any message for both sides, or clear the whole history on both ends, and Telegram’s FAQ notes that deleted messages leave no mark.
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Open the message menu
Tap the message on Android, press and hold it on iPhone, or right-click it in Telegram Desktop, Telegram Web or the macOS app, then choose Report. Those are the three gestures Telegram’s FAQ lists, and they work in private chats as well as in groups.
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Follow the reasons Telegram serves
The first screen lists broad categories and each choice opens a narrower one. Pick the reason that describes what the message does rather than the gravest one on the list: a threat filed as spam gets judged as spam.
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Add the comment when it is offered
Some paths end in a text field. One sentence naming what the message does and who it targets gives the moderator context the message alone lacks, such as the fact that the same person has written from three accounts.
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Block once the report is in
Blocking stops the person reaching you but sends nothing to Telegram. For a stranger, the block dialog on Android carries its own Report spam checkbox, so the block and the report can go in one step.
Done this way, how to report someone on Telegram comes down to specific messages, which is how Telegram’s review works: the moderator judges what was sent. That is also why the question of how to report a user on Telegram has no separate answer for most people. The person is reported through their messages, the same item-first logic behind Instagram’s comment-level reports.
How to report someone on Telegram Android, iPhone or desktop
On Android, tap the message once and choose Report; a long press selects messages instead of opening the menu. On iPhone, press and hold the message, then tap Report. In Telegram Desktop, Telegram Web and the macOS app, right-click the message and choose Report. Every version then shows the same reason screens, because the reasons are sent by Telegram’s servers rather than stored in the app.
| Device | Report one message | A stranger who wrote first | A bot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Android | Tap the message, then Report | The bar reads Block user and Add contact; the block dialog has a Report spam box | Open the bot’s profile, then Report in its menu |
| iPhone and iPad | Press and hold the message, then Report | The bar reads Report Spam and Add Contact | Open the bot’s profile, then Report |
| Desktop, Web, macOS | Right-click the message, then Report | Report the first message from its menu | Open the bot’s profile, then Report |
Those labels are Telegram’s own interface text, as published on its translation platform. On Android the block dialog pairs the Report spam checkbox with Delete this chat; on iPhone, tapping Report Spam asks, “Are you sure you want to report spam from this user?”
Anyone asking how to report someone in Telegram Web or Telegram Desktop uses the same right-click as the macOS app.
Can you report someone on Telegram, or only what they sent?
Yes, and the apps route the report through what the person sent. Report their messages from the message menu, or report the whole conversation with the spam bar if they wrote to you first. Telegram’s apps put a Report item in the profile menu of bots, groups and channels; for an ordinary person, the messages are the way in.
Search results for “report Telegram user” and “Telegram report user” contradict each other on exactly this point. One set of guides describes a Report item on every profile; another says Telegram has no way to report a person at all. Both are partly right. Telegram’s API includes a method to “report a peer for violation of telegram’s Terms of Service,” which covers profiles, while the Android and iPhone apps, going by their published interface text, offer it for bots, groups and channels and leave people to the message menu and the spam bar.
| What you report | Where the control is | What the moderator gets | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| One or more messages | The message menu: tap, hold or right-click | The selected messages, the reason path and any comment | Threats, abuse, scams and illegal content in any chat |
| A stranger’s conversation | The bar at the top of a chat a non-contact opened | The conversation, marked as spam | Unwanted messages, cold sales pitches, mass DMs |
| A bot, group or channel | The profile menu, then Report | The bot, group or channel and the reason | Spam bots, scam channels, abusive groups |
| Public content, by email | [email protected], from any mail account | Your links and your account of the problem | Public posts the reason menu cannot explain |
The reason menu is the other source of confusion. When an app files a message report, Telegram’s servers answer with the next screen: a list of options, a request for a comment, or a confirmation that the report is in. The list on your screen is Telegram’s current list, not one built into your app, and it can change without an update. Two guides written months apart can both be accurate and still disagree.
Telegram’s API defines ten reasons for reporting a profile: spam, violence, pornography, child abuse, copyright, impersonation, illegal drugs, the divulgation of personal details, an irrelevant geogroup, and other.Telegram API documentation, ReportReason type, core.telegram.org, retrieved 25 September 2026.
The practical answer to how to report Telegram user accounts is therefore to report their worst messages, one report for each message that shows a different problem. The same holds for shorter searches such as “report user Telegram,” “report user on Telegram” and “Telegram how to report user”: each asks for a button, and the button is on the message. From outside the app, the only route is an email to [email protected] with the t.me link to their username and to any public messages involved.
For most people, then, how to report someone on Telegram and how to report their messages are the same question. Other platforms put the choice on the profile: TikTok’s Report account option sits on every profile, X’s post and account reports can name either one post or the person behind it, and on Facebook the profile, the Page and each post are separate objects, which the Facebook account removal routes handle one at a time.
What Report Spam does to a Telegram user
Report Spam sends the conversation to Telegram’s moderators. If they agree it was spam, the sender’s account is limited: it can still message people who saved its number and reply to anyone who writes first, but it cannot open new chats with strangers. Telegram’s spam FAQ says a first limit usually lasts “a few days or so” and that repeat offenses bring longer blocks.
Searches for “telegram report spam user” are really asking about this one button, and it appears in one place: a chat opened by someone who is not in your contacts. Inside a conversation you already have, report individual messages under a spam reason instead.
“When users press the ‘Report spam’ button in a chat, they forward these messages to our team of moderators for review. If the moderators decide that the messages deserved this, the account becomes limited temporarily.”Telegram Spam FAQ, telegram.org/faq_spam, retrieved 25 September 2026.
A limit is not a ban. The limited account keeps its chats, its contacts and its groups, and it can appeal to @SpamBot, which Telegram calls its Spam Info Bot. What the spam report removes is reach to strangers, the one thing a spammer needs. The step from repeated limits to a ban is Telegram’s decision, and Telegram does not publish where it falls.
How to report a bot on Telegram, and when the bot is a person
How to report a bot on Telegram: open the bot’s chat, tap its name to open the profile, choose Report from the menu, pick the reason and submit, then block the bot. A genuine bot cannot write to you first. Telegram’s developer documentation says “Bots can’t start conversations with users,” so an unprompted “bot” in your messages is a person’s account driven by software.
The difference decides which route works. To report Telegram bot accounts you started yourself, such as a fake airdrop bot or a bot selling pirated files, use the bot’s profile menu. A bot that keeps messaging you after you pressed Start is the case people search as “telegram report spam bot”: report it from the profile first, then block it.
Real bots also carry a visible marker. The same documentation says bots show a “bot” label in the chat instead of a last-seen or online status, so a chat that shows “last seen recently” belongs to a user account, whatever it calls itself.
Genuine bots are capped as well: about 30 messages a second for bulk notifications, or up to 1,000 a second with paid broadcasts at 0.1 Stars for each message above the free amount, and only ever to people who started them.Telegram Bots FAQ and “Bots: An introduction for developers,” core.telegram.org, retrieved 25 September 2026.
What a Telegram DM bot with anti-ban really sends you
Mass-messaging software is sold as a Telegram DM bot with anti-ban protection. It logs in to a pool of ordinary accounts, spaces the messages out, rotates proxies and swaps in a fresh account when one is limited. The messages arrive from user accounts, which is why the chat shows a name and a last-seen status rather than a bot label. Report that chat with Report Spam, and the report lands on the account that sent it.
A “telegram bot anti-ban” feature cannot deliver what its name promises. Telegram’s developer pages state that accounts logging in through unofficial API clients “are automatically put under observation,” and they set a permanent ban for using the API to flood or spam. The anti-ban layer slows detection down while the rule stays the same. Accounts caught this way are banned, and a banned number can pass to the next person the carrier issues it to.
“If you use the Telegram API for flooding, spamming, faking subscriber and view counters of channels, you will be banned forever.”Telegram, “Obtaining api_id,” core.telegram.org, retrieved 25 September 2026.
Is there an official Telegram reporting bot?
One official bot takes reports about people: @notoscam, which Telegram lists under the display name Report Impersonation with the line “Reports about scammers are welcome here.” Telegram’s FAQ sends people there when a scammer is pretending to be them. The other official accounts people call a Telegram reporting bot do different jobs: @SpamBot appeals limits, @SearchReport flags search terms and @EURegulation takes EU legal notices.
| Account or address | What Telegram says it is for | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| @notoscam | “Reports about scammers are welcome here.” | A scammer is posing as you or as an official account |
| @SpamBot | “Helps users with limited accounts regain the full functionality.” | Your own account was limited after spam reports |
| @SearchReport | “Report problematic search terms.” | A harmful result shows up in Telegram search |
| @EURegulation | “Telegram’s EU Regulation Bot” | You are sending a notice under EU law |
| [email protected] | Its “automated takedown email address” | Illegal public content, reported from outside the app |
| [email protected] | Copyright complaints about public bots, channels and sticker sets | Your own work is reposted publicly |
| [email protected] | Child sexual abuse material, from outside the app | Alongside the in-app report and a report to the police |
| [email protected] | Restoring a banned phone number | Your own number is refused at login |
The most repeated mistake in Telegram reporting guides is the advice to forward spam to @SpamBot. Telegram describes @SpamBot as “The official Spam Info Bot by Telegram” that “helps users with limited accounts regain the full functionality,” which makes it the desk a reported account appeals to. Telegram documents no way for it to take reports about other people.
@notoscam takes a username and a description in a chat with the bot. Instagram asks more of an impersonation victim, down to photo ID, before acting on an Instagram impersonation claim. Bots and panels outside this list that call themselves reporting bots are not Telegram’s; they sell report volume, while Telegram’s own documentation describes moderators judging messages rather than tallies.
Report Telegram extortion or a counterfeit seller: two different routes
To report Telegram extortion or a counterfeit seller, file the in-app report on their messages first, then take the case outside Telegram. Extortion goes to the police, or in the U.S. to the FBI at tips.fbi.gov, and is never paid. A counterfeit seller goes to your bank or payment service if you paid, and to [email protected] with the channel links if you own the brand being copied.
Extortion and sextortion
Extortion on Telegram usually arrives as a threat to publish intimate images, stolen data or invented accusations unless you pay. The FBI’s guidance on financially motivated sextortion is plain about the money: paying does not end the demands, and offenders often release the material anyway. Keep every message, report the account from the chat, and do not delete the conversation, because the conversation is the evidence.
The FBI received more than 75,000 sextortion reports in 2025 and referred more than 5,700 involving minors to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Extortion was the second most reported cybercrime after phishing, with $122.5 million in reported losses.FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center 2025 annual report, as reported by CyberScoop, Matt Kapko, 7 April 2026.
Where the threat involves images, two free services can stop re-uploads on the platforms that take part, without the image leaving your device. Take It Down, run by NCMEC, covers images taken before the person was 18, and StopNCII.org covers adults. Both work from a digital fingerprint of the file, so nobody has to view the image itself.
A police report reaches further than a Telegram report. The in-app report can act only on the account; a valid legal request can reach the person behind it, and since late 2024 Telegram has answered far more of them.
Telegram fulfilled 900 requests from U.S. authorities in 2024, handing over phone numbers and IP addresses for 2,253 users, after answering only 14 requests covering 108 users for most of that year.TechCrunch, Zack Whittaker, 7 January 2025.
Counterfeit sellers and fake shops
A counterfeit seller on Telegram is usually a channel or a bot taking orders, paid by bank transfer, crypto or a payment link. Buyers who received fakes, or nothing, have two routes that work without Telegram: a dispute with the card issuer or payment service, and a fraud report to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov or to IC3. Inside Telegram, report the seller’s messages and the channel, and use @notoscam if the channel poses as the real brand.
Brand owners have a harder time. Telegram publishes a copyright address, [email protected], but no trademark form, so a trademark complaint goes to [email protected] with the t.me links, the registration number and a short account of the confusion. Expect a slow and partial result.
About 20 percent of the intellectual property complaints the brand-protection firm Authentix had filed with Telegram led to a takedown, and Telegram responded more slowly than other platforms.Bharat Kapoor, Vice President of Online Brand Protection, Authentix, writing after Pavel Durov’s arrest in 2024.
Sellers rarely stay on one platform. Where the same shop runs a Facebook Page or a LinkedIn company page, those platforms have rights-based routes Telegram lacks, set out in removing a Facebook Page and LinkedIn company-page takedowns. Product photos lifted from your own shop are a copyright matter, the route explained in filing an Instagram copyright claim.
What happens after you report someone on Telegram?
After you report someone on Telegram, moderators and automated systems check the reported messages against Telegram’s rules. The result can be nothing, a removed message, a temporary limit on messaging strangers, a scam or fake warning on the profile, or a temporary or permanent ban. Telegram sends the reporter no case number and no outcome, so the only sign is what changes on the account.
Telegram’s terms tie the penalty to the rules rather than to the reports: “Failure to comply with the Telegram Terms of Service may result in a temporary or a permanent ban from Telegram or some of its services.” The warning label is the middle step most people have never seen. On iPhone it reads, “Warning: Many users reported this account as a scam or a fake account. Please be careful, especially if it asks you for money.”
Telegram’s moderation counter rose from 22,724,381 groups and channels blocked in 2026 on 13 August to 26,466,911 on 25 September, about 87,000 a day. Telegram publishes no equivalent figure for individual user accounts.Calculated by Clearline from two dated readings of telegram.org/moderation, 13 August and 25 September 2026.
The person you report is not told who filed it, and Telegram’s in-app report screens never ask for your name. Instagram publishes more about its side of this, from what an Instagram report does to who learns about a report.
Can you get a Telegram user banned?
Only by reporting conduct that breaks Telegram’s rules. People who search “get Telegram user banned” are usually looking for a lever Telegram does not provide: its spam limit follows a moderator’s decision about the messages, and its bans follow rule-breaking. Coordinated report waves work against the people running them, because the accounts filing in bursts are the ones that look automated.
Some platforms publish their thresholds, and YouTube’s public strike ladder can be counted from outside; Telegram’s cannot. Paid services sell the same reports at a price. They can prepare evidence and file what a client has standing to file, but they cannot decide a moderator’s review, the ceiling set out for paid Instagram removal desks, TikTok takedown services and account removal sellers on X.
Telegram phone number banned: why it happens and where to appeal
When a Telegram phone number is banned, the app refuses it at login with the line “This phone number is banned.” Telegram has blocked the number itself, usually after spam or other rule-breaking, and sometimes because a previous owner used it or because it is a virtual number. Appeal by email to [email protected], the address Telegram’s own account recommends, with the number and a plain account of how you used it.
A banned Telegram number is not always the owner’s fault. Telegram’s spam FAQ says some numbers trigger “an overly harsh response from our system, either due to their previous owners’ activities or due to them being certain virtual/VOIP numbers.” Carriers reissue numbers, so a SIM bought last month can carry a ban someone else earned.
| What you see | What it means | Where to go |
|---|---|---|
| “This phone number is banned.” at login | The number itself is blocked from signing in or signing up | Email [email protected] |
| You can message only people who saved your number | The account is limited after spam reports | @SpamBot, inside Telegram |
| A limit on a number you have not used yet | The number’s history or type set off the anti-spam system | @SpamBot first, then Telegram support |
Write from an address you control. Give the number in international format, the device and app, the date the ban appeared, and whether the number is new to you. Telegram X, the second Android app Telegram builds, shows a different address in the same error, [email protected]; both belong to Telegram, and recover@ is the one its official account named for bans.
“Contacting [email protected] is the best way to address restoring a banned phone number.”@telegram, Telegram’s official account on X, 26 August 2019.
Telegram publishes no deadline for either route and issues no case reference, so keep a dated copy of what you sent. Nobody helping with a ban needs your login code, your two-step verification password or a session file, because each of those hands over the account itself. If the ban followed a report wave you did nothing to earn, account recovery casework starts from that same email and the evidence behind it.
When reporting someone on Telegram does not work
Knowing how to report someone on Telegram helps only when there is a rule to apply. A report fails when the messages break no rule, when they were deleted before anyone reported them, when the claim needs rights Telegram honors only for public content, or when the harm has moved off Telegram. Rudeness, arguments and one-off insults usually stay up.
- Nothing breaks a rule. Unpleasant is not the same as prohibited. Block the person and keep the chat; if the conduct turns into threats, the earlier messages show the pattern.
- The message is gone. A message deleted for both sides, or media that ran out a self-destruct timer, cannot be reported from the app. Screenshots still support a police report or an email to [email protected], but they are weaker evidence than a message a moderator can open.
- A copyright claim about a private chat. Telegram’s copyright answer still says “Private groups and chats on Telegram are private amongst their participants. We do not process any requests related to them.” Copyright complaints reach public bots, channels and sticker sets only.
- It spread to Google. Screenshots of Telegram posts often land on forums and indexed pages, where a Telegram report cannot follow. Search results need search suppression and deindexing work.
- The account holder has died. No report reason fits, and Telegram publishes no memorial process: an account that stays offline for 18 months deletes itself, unless its owner set a different period. Families facing the same question elsewhere follow routes such as the one for a deceased relative’s Facebook account.
Frequently asked questions
Is @SpamBot where you report spam on Telegram?
No. Telegram describes @SpamBot as its Spam Info Bot, which helps users with limited accounts regain full functionality. It is where a reported account appeals a limit. To report spam, use the Report Spam bar at the top of the chat or Report on the message itself, and use @notoscam for a scammer posing as you.
Can you report someone on Telegram without the app?
Only by email. Send the t.me link to their username, links to any public messages or channels involved and a short description to [email protected], which Telegram calls its automated takedown email address. The in-app Report menu needs a logged-in account, and email works best for public content.
Can you report a Telegram message after it was deleted?
No. Once a message is deleted for both sides, or media runs out its self-destruct timer, there is nothing left to select in the app. Report the messages that remain, keep your screenshots, and use them for a police report or an email to [email protected].
Does Telegram tell you what happened after a report?
No. Telegram sends no case number and no result for an ordinary report. The signs are on the account itself: a message that disappears, a scam or fake warning on the profile, an account that can no longer message strangers, or an account that is gone.
Why is a new Telegram number banned before I used it?
The number probably carries its history. Carriers reissue numbers, and Telegram's spam FAQ says some numbers trigger an overly harsh response from its system because of their previous owners' activities or because they are virtual or VOIP numbers. Email [email protected], say when you got the number, and ask for a review.
Reported it and the account is still there?
Send the username, the t.me links and what Telegram showed you. The reply names the route that fits the case, what it needs from you and where it stops, including for a banned number.