🧩 So, What Changed?
In the last post, I talked about this cool bot I found — a Telegram bot that handed out disposable emails and pinged you when you got mail. Super handy. But using that tool sparked something deeper:
"Why not build my own bot?"
Spoiler alert: I did.
⚙️ What I Wanted To Build
I wanted a bot that wasn’t just a gimmick — something that:
- 🤝 Responds to commands like
/start,/help, and/about - 🧠 Remembers user sessions and states
- 📨 Lets users send a fake email from Telegram to an actual inbox
- 🚀 Maybe, just maybe, automate future workflows with buttons, menus, and replies
Basically, I wanted it to feel less like a bot and more like a cyber sidekick.
🔧 Tools & Stack
- Language: Python 3
-
Bot Framework:
python-telegram-bot - Hosting: Railway (yes, I’m cheap and lazy)
- Email Relay: Integrated with SMTP for outbound fake emails
- Extras: Markdown formatting, async functions, and custom keyboards for replies
🛠️ The Build Process (With Dumb Mistakes I Made)
Step 1: Setting Up the Bot Token 🔑
Grabbed the token from @botfather (yes, still feels like talking to mafia). Put it in a .env file — lesson learned from hardcoding it once and almost pushing to GitHub. 😅
Step 2: Basic Command Handling 🚦
Wired up /start, /help, and /reset. Pretty straightforward.
@bot.message_handler(commands=['start'])
def send_welcome(message):
bot.reply_to(message, "Hey, I'm your cyber mailman. Type /help to see what I do.")
Step 3: Sending Emails via Telegram 📤
Hooked up the backend with SMTP. Had the user enter subject ➝ recipient ➝ body — in that order.
Also added some basic validation because people type like goblins.
Step 4: Buttons & Flow ✨
Instead of plain text, I used Telegram inline buttons. So now, it’s tap-and-go instead of sending a wall of text.
InlineKeyboardButton("Send New Email", callback_data='send_email')
🧠 What I Learned
- How to use inline queries and callback handlers
- That bot UX is way harder than expected
- Sending emails from bots is easy, validating human input is not
- Hosting bots that don't go offline is a full-time job
🚀 Future Plans
- Add a dashboard for viewing sent emails
- Schedule emails using cron
- Integrate with GPT for auto-generating email replies 🤯
- Maybe… maybe even turn it into a public utility?
TL;DR
I used a Telegram bot.
I liked it.
I built my own bot.
It sends fake emails and talks like me.
Moral of the story? Curiosity + caffeine = shipping cool shit.
Built with 💻, ☕, and a hint of "I wonder if this breaks..."
Link?
Have it: https://t.me/mailer3000bot?start=_tgr_nrqbUw5iYWRl
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