OSINT investigators are discovering that Discord isn’t just for gamers.
Welcome to the server for Discord OSINT. It began with gaming, but hosting communities of developers, hobbyists, and even professionals today, Discord has rapidly grown into one of the most popular platforms for online communication - and investigation. With its diverse features, skyrocketing popularity and limitless potential as a repository for data, Discord is becoming a key focus for Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) investigators looking to conduct intel on its 500 million active users.
Curious how to make the most of it? Let’s lay out our up-to-date guide to conducting professional-grade OSINT on Discord, including how to ethically and legally use usernames to go from Discord to phone numbers, Discord to email, and more.
What is Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT)?
If you’re reading this article, chances are you’re already familiar with Open-Source Intelligence; you might even be an OSINT professional. If so, feel free to skip to the next section.
To recap: OSINT, or Open-Source INTelligence is the process of collecting and analysing data from publicly accessible sources. OSINT draws from a wide range of open sources - online platforms, social media platforms, media publications, public records, metadata, government reports and even eCommerce. Governments, law enforcement, journalists, researchers, data analysts, cybersecurity professionals and private sector companies from Fortune-500 titans to family businesses are all using OSINT right now to support decision-making and strategic planning.
The core principle of OSINT is this reliance on only legally available and publicly accessible information. This is where Discord comes in.
For more on how OSINT works, distinctions between different OSINT branches, and even a quick historical rundown, check out our comprehensive OSINT Basics article, ‘What is OSINT?’
How Does Discord Work?
Before finding Discord emails, Discord phone numbers or even Discord accounts from usernames, it’s important to understand how Discord works as a platform.
Discord isn’t like traditional social media platforms. Unlike Facebook or Instagram, Discord is primarily a chat platform that operates on a server-based model. Rather than scrolling a feed or following an algorithm, users join specific communities (servers) dedicated to groups or topics that interest them. Here, they can engage in text, voice, or video communications with other server members who share their passions.
The specific makeup of Discord means that what information you can gather depends heavily on certain factors. These include:
- User Activity: Publicly available data, such as messages in public servers, only exists if users generate it. Subjects of investigation need to be frequent communicators to yield the best Discord OSINT results.
- Server Settings: Some servers may restrict access to user profiles, making server data private to only those who are members. If data stops being publicly accessible, it’s no longer suitable fuel for an OSINT search.
- Your Role: Are you a member of the server? Being a member of a server may grant you more access to information than an outsider. Infiltration can be a powerful technique in OSINT, but its important to stick to ethical guidelines.
Discord OSINT: Three Key Approaches
Below are the most effective OSINT techniques for gathering intelligence on Discord users; our how-to guide for discovering emails and phone numbers from Discord usernames, or even hidden Discord usernames from secret accounts. We’ve split these techniques into three categories: OSINT for Discord User Details, OSINT for Discord Phone Numbers, OSINT for Discord Email Addresses.
Getting the Basics: OSINT for Discord User Details
Every Discord user has a unique profile. Key data points differentiate every profile: a username, a discriminator (the four-digit number that follows a username, e.g., gamer#1234, not mandatory post-2024), a profile picture or banner image, and possibly a bio or linked social media accounts.
Finding these personal details is often the first step in identifying a user - but you need to search for these details in the first place. Here’s several ways to find accounts and get general user information from Discord using OSINT, as well as several ways to utilize what you find to access further information.
To find a Discord account and its basic details with OSINT, you can try:
Dorking and Searching
A simple Google Dork can reveal that many users aren’t that imaginative; they reuse their Discord username across multiple platforms. Check if your subject has reused their username elsewhere, or shared it on platforms like Twitter, Reddit, GitHub, Twitch, or Steam. For best results, use tried-and-tested Dorks or specific operators on search engines (i.e. \"Discord\" + \"username\" + \"platform name\").
Networking, Networking, Networking
Comb through servers that you know your subject frequents. Trace mutual friends, or posts in relevant community servers where the person might be active. Context or identifying details can help confirm a username match. If you’re a Discord user and share a server or chat, check the member list within the server by hovering over their profile picture or clicking their username to uncover full username and discriminator data.
Exploring OSINT Tools
Some OSINT tools and services are designed to search for publicly shared Discord usernames; OSINT Industries’ tool incorporates a module (one of 500+ username modules) that does exactly that. Tools like ours can cross-reference other known information, such as email addresses, phone numbers or known usernames, to reveal Discord accounts associated with those details. Reverse searches like reverse email lookup and reverse phone lookup are ideal for account-finding tasks.
To find further data using a Discord username, you can try:
Discord Username Lookup
Although it has its limits, use Discord’s built-in username search feature to locate messages by a specific user in shared servers. Simply input a username, if you’ve found one. Tools like Discord ID search services may help locate a user if you only have their unique Discord discriminator (i.e. the four numbers after their username).
Profile Scraping
If you need to get more Discord data for an important investigation such as law enforcement work, there are OSINT tools out there that can automate the process of extracting user data from Discord, sometimes including Discord emails and Discord phone numbers. Python libraries, such as ‘discord.py’, allow for custom scripts to gather profile details from servers you have access to. (Be sure to read the Ethics section below before attempting this.)
Leveraging OSINT Tools
Specialized OSINT tools, including OSINT Industries, can provide deeper insights as well as finding Discord data to start with. Platforms like OSINT Industries and Maltego can map and cross-reference Discord usernames with external data sources to uncover more. What’s more, you can automate searches, visualize connections and reveal patterns that manual methods might miss to piece together your Discord puzzle while automatically ensuring a high ethical and legal standard.
Discord to Digits: Uncovering Discord Phone Numbers
Discord requires users to input a phone number to verify their accounts, and you might think this makes phone numbers easy to access via Discord. Unfortunately, you wouldn’t be correct to think so. Every Discord account is linked to a phone number, but this information is not immediately obvious - or readily available. This is a job for OSINT. Here’s how you can use OSINT techniques to infer or locate the phone number linked to a Discord account.
To find a Discord phone number with OSINT, you can try:
Discord Phone Number Lookup via OSINT Tools
As covered above, many (unimaginative) users reuse their Discord username on other platforms. With 70+ phone number modules, the chances of locating and cross-referencing a Discord number from a phone number lookup on the OSINT Industries platform are high, especially if you can conduct an email address or username lookup for your subject as well. Often, our comprehensive data profiles will uncover at least one additional selector - like an email address, real name or other account - for which you can immediately run a new lookup or automatic Google Dork to keep your search going.
Analyzing Server Roles
Which type of servers is your subject usually active on? What’s their role? In professional or local community servers, members in higher-level mod or admin roles will sometimes post contact details like phone numbers in public chats, bios or pinned posts. This is a simple way to get hold of that Discord phone number you’re looking for, and the most basic application of OSINT: manually checking publicly accessible sources.
Search Engine Queries
Of course, the numerical discriminator is a detail that complicated manual Discord username lookup pre-2024. However, a search for your subject’s Discord username across social media sites and forums can show your subject sharing their phone number elsewhere on the internet. Use search operators and dorks such as ‘"username" + "phone number" to help find instances where your subject has publicly posted their number.
OSINT Delivers on Discord: Conducting Discord Email Lookup
Yes, Discord requires an email address to create an account - for verification, account security, and features like password recovery and important updates. However Discord boasts a strong focus on privacy, so finding a Discord email address from a username can be challenging at face value. Luckily, there are some indirect ways to uncover this information, especially if you’re using OSINT.
To find a Discord email with OSINT, you can try:
Finding Linked Social Media Accounts
Attempt a manual Discord email lookup. Users often link their Discord accounts to other platforms like Twitter, GitHub, or Reddit via email, or list their emails on those linked accounts. Dorking can reveal a lot of information, but many Discord users put links to accounts in their bio where they’re more open about their email address.
User Bio or Server Posts
Some servers have a culture of sharing email addresses. In professional or recruitment-focused servers, for example, users frequently share their email addresses for networking for hiring purposes. By reviewing server bios, chats, relevant pinned posts, or shared documents on servers like these, you might find email addresses explicitly mentioned or shared for contact. This method works particularly well in communities that emphasize public interaction or business engagement.
Using Email Lookup with OSINT Tools
Again, specialized OSINT email lookup and reverse email lookup tools, like Maltego or OSINT Industries, can be invaluable. These tools automate searches and aggregate data to identify email addresses linked to specific usernames or aliases. With access to over 370+ email modules, OSINT Industries’ platform is a great virtual magnifying glass to uncover connections between a Discord profile and its associated email.
Staying Ethical: Legal Considerations in Discord OSINT
While OSINT relies on publicly available data, it’s crucial to respect privacy and adhere to ethical guidelines to keep you and your subjects safe. When conducting OSINT with Discord email lookups,
- Stay Within Legal Boundaries: Although these crimes are by no means popular with OSINT investigators, avoid hacking, phishing, or using unauthorized tools. Always keep in mind the values of #OSINT4Good.
- Respect Platform Policies: Always play by Discord’s rules, and be sure to read the Terms of Service. For example, Discord’s ToS prohibits scraping without permission, so be sure to ask for admin and other relevant approvals before accessing server data in this way.
- Focus on Public Data: Only collect information users have shared publicly and consented to sharing. Private data is not yours to take, and to seek or use it violates the core principle of OSINT.
- Use OSINT Tools with Built-In Compliance: Using a platform like OSINT Industries can take the challenge and guesswork out of Discord OSINT with our legal and ethical guarantees, including our no-saved-data policy. Read our Ethics and Compliance page for more details.
Conclusion
Discord usernames, Discord emails or Discord phone numbers, OSINT investigation on Discord can uncover a wealth of information - and even solve deadly crimes. Whether you’re a cybersecurity professional, journalist, law enforcement officer or digital investigator, understanding Discord’s ecosystem, employing the right OSINT methods and leveraging OSINT tools like our platform can help you to dredge Discord for data diamonds, setting you on the right track to a breakthrough.
