Match accounts by id instead of username (#15)

* Replace account matching by (optional) username with (mandatory) id field
* Use get instead of direct key retrieval
* Bump version

README.md

@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 # telegram-phone-number-checker
 
-Python tool/script toc heck if phone numbers are connected to Telegram accounts.
+Python tool/script to check if phone numbers are connected to Telegram accounts. Retrieving username, name, and IDs where available.
 
 ## Installation
 
-[![PyPI - Python Version](https://img.shields.io/pypi/pyversions/telegram-phone-number-checker)](https://pypi.org/project/telegram-phone-number-checker/)
+[![PyPI - Version](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/telegram-phone-number-checker)
+](https://pypi.org/project/telegram-phone-number-checker/)
 
 You can install this tool directly from the [official pypi release](https://pypi.org/project/telegram-phone-number-checker/).
 
@@ -56,7 +57,7 @@ The result will be written to the console but also written as JSON to a `results
 
 For each phone number, you can expect the following possible responses:
 
-1. If available, you will receive the Telegram Username,Name, and ID that are connected with this number.
+1. If available, you will receive the Telegram Username, Name, and ID that are connected with this number.
 2. 'no username detected'. This means that it looks like the number was used to create a Telegram account but the user did not choose a Telegram Username. It is optional to create a Username on Telegram.
 3. 'ERROR: no response, the user does not exist or has blocked contact adding.': There can be several reasons for this response. Either the phone number has not been used to create a Telegram account. Or: The phone number is connected to a Telegram account but the user has restricted the option to find him/her via the phone number.
 4. Or: another error occurred.

pyproject.toml

@@ -1,10 +1,14 @@
 [tool.poetry]
 name = "telegram-phone-number-checker"
-version = "1.0.0"
+version = "1.0.6"
 description = "Check if phone numbers are connected to Telegram accounts."
 authors = ["Bellingcat"]
 license = "MIT"
 readme = "README.md"
+repository = "https://github.com/bellingcat/telegram-phone-number-checker"
+
+[tool.poetry.urls]
+"Bug Tracker" = "https://github.com/bellingcat/telegram-phone-number-checker/issues"
 
 [tool.poetry.scripts]
 telegram-phone-number-checker = "telegram_phone_number_checker.main:main_entrypoint"

telegram_phone_number_checker/main.py

@@ -1,13 +1,10 @@
-import os, json
-from telethon.sync import TelegramClient, errors
+import os, json, re
+from telethon.sync import TelegramClient, errors, functions
 from telethon.tl.types import InputPhoneContact
-from telethon import functions
 from dotenv import load_dotenv
 from getpass import getpass
 import click
 
-load_dotenv()
-
 def get_names(client, phone_number):
     """
     This function takes in a phone number and returns the username first name and the last name of the user if the user exists. It does so by first adding the user's phones to the contact list, retrieving the information, and then deleting the user from the contact list.
@@ -15,23 +12,30 @@ def get_names(client, phone_number):
     result = {}
     print(f'Checking: {phone_number=} ...', end="", flush=True)
     try:
+        # Create a contact
         contact = InputPhoneContact(client_id = 0, phone = phone_number, first_name="", last_name="")
+        # Attempt to add the contact from the address book
         contacts = client(functions.contacts.ImportContactsRequest([contact]))
-        username = contacts.to_dict()['users'][0]['username']
-        if not username:
-            result.update({"error": f'ERROR: no username detected'})
-            del_usr = client(functions.contacts.DeleteContactsRequest(id=[username]))
-        else:
-            result.update({"username": username})
-            del_usr = client(functions.contacts.DeleteContactsRequest(id=[username]))
-            # getting more information about the user
-            id = del_usr.to_dict()['users'][0]['id']
-            first_name = del_usr.to_dict()['users'][0]['first_name']
-            last_name = del_usr.to_dict()['users'][0]['last_name']
-            result.update({"first_name": first_name, "last_name": last_name, "id": id})
 
-    except IndexError as e:
-        result.update({"error": f'ERROR: no response, the user does not exist or has blocked contact adding.'})
+        users = contacts.to_dict().get('users', [])
+        number_of_matches = len(users)
+
+        if number_of_matches == 0:
+            result.update({"error": f'No response, the phone number is not on Telegram or has blocked contact adding.'})
+        elif number_of_matches == 1:
+            user = users[0] 
+            # Attempt to remove the contact from the address book
+            client(functions.contacts.DeleteContactsRequest(id=[user.get('id')]))
+            # getting more information about the user
+            result.update({
+                "id": user.get('id'),
+                "username": user.get('username'),
+                "first_name": user.get('first_name'),
+                "last_name": user.get('last_name')
+                })
+        else:
+            result.update({"error": f'This phone number matched multiple Telegram accounts, which is unexpected. Please contact the developer: contact-tech@bellingcat.com'})
+
     except TypeError as e:
         result.update({"error": f"TypeError: {e}. --> The error might have occurred due to the inability to delete the {phone_number=} from the contact list."})
     except Exception as e:
@@ -46,9 +50,9 @@ def validate_users(client, phone_numbers):
     The function uses the get_api_response function to first check if the user exists and if it does, then it returns the first user name and the last user name.
     '''
     if not phone_numbers or not len(phone_numbers):
-        phone_numbers = click.prompt('Enter the phone numbers to check, separated by commas')
+        phone_numbers = input('Enter the phone numbers to check, separated by commas: ')
     result = {}
-    phones = [p.strip() for p in phone_numbers.split(",")]
+    phones = [re.sub(r"\s+", "", p, flags=re.UNICODE) for p in phone_numbers.split(",")]
     try:
         for phone in phones:
             if phone not in result:
@@ -62,9 +66,9 @@ def validate_users(client, phone_numbers):
 def login(api_id, api_hash, phone_number):
     """Create a telethon session or reuse existing one"""
     print('Logging in...', end="", flush=True)
-    API_ID = api_id or os.getenv('API_ID') or click.prompt('Enter your API ID')
-    API_HASH = api_hash or os.getenv('API_HASH') or click.prompt('Enter your API HASH')
-    PHONE_NUMBER = phone_number or os.getenv('PHONE_NUMBER') or click.prompt('Enter your phone number')
+    API_ID = api_id or os.getenv('API_ID') or input('Enter your API ID: ')
+    API_HASH = api_hash or os.getenv('API_HASH') or input('Enter your API HASH: ')
+    PHONE_NUMBER = phone_number or os.getenv('PHONE_NUMBER') or input('Enter your phone number: ')
     client = TelegramClient(PHONE_NUMBER, API_ID, API_HASH)
     client.connect()
     if not client.is_user_authorized():
@@ -91,6 +95,7 @@ def show_results(output, res):
 @click.option('--output', help='results filename, default to results.json', default="results.json", type=str)
 def main_entrypoint(phone_numbers, api_id, api_hash, api_phone_number, output):
     """Check to see if one or more phone numbers belong to a valid Telegram account"""
+    load_dotenv(".env")
     client = login(api_id, api_hash, api_phone_number)
     res =  validate_users(client, phone_numbers)
     show_results(output, res)