Newly filed court records show exactly what happens when Telegram provides data to U.S. authorities. A letter written by Telegram to law enforcement and filed in a court case provides a specific user's phone number, user ID, and IP address.
The letter relates to a case against Mahmoud Amin Ya'qub Al-Muhtadi, who allegedly participated in the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel. It lists user number 7149269705, the phone number +201155664529, an IP address, and a timestamp of October 8, 2025.
Telegram states in the letter that it is providing the information "voluntarily" while adding that doing so is "not conceding that we are subject to U.S. jurisdiction for this or any other request or any purpose." A related government filing says the data came in response to a court order under the Stored Communications Act.
The letter also includes what Telegram calls its "non-public contact point" for U.S. law enforcement requests: content-referral-u1@telegram.org. This email address is now part of the public court record. Security experts note that hackers often contact tech companies impersonating law enforcement, sometimes using compromised government email accounts, to trick them into handing over user data.
As of January 2026, Telegram had given U.S. authorities data on 2,253 users, 404 Media has previously reported.