Very rough Text messg to my phone :(

[Zak33]

I am seriously gutted that this is going on so won't appreciate any sarcasm , inuendo or vulgarity on this thread.

Mssg from 6668....(dunno who they are)

I wont go into details but suffice it to say it's about sex, local places to meet, dogging (which does'nt involve dogs) and I DIDNT ASK FOR IT!

So..people...be sharp...watch if you have kid brothers or sisters, youngsters with mobiles.....cos this was NOT nice.

Be aware of them...its not good, its vulgar and its not right to get it.

Am ringing Orange now, to find out what to do about it.

[Rob]

So..people...be sharp...watch if you have kid brothers or sisters, youngsters with mobiles.....cos this was NOT nice.

Thats the worrying bit!

[Zak33]

yup..I was pretty shocked to get that on my private mobile phone, but if a youngster got it....

[Rob]

Exactly, my two kids have got phones (8 and 10 yr old). This is one of the reasons I wasn't keen for them to have them. But they don't live with me so didn't get a lot of say in it

[Agent]

Is it just from "6668" or is there a complete number ?

[Zak33]

just 6668

Orange were no help.....couldnt do anything

[Sair33]

Thats really not good is it...
It annoys me enough when I receive messages saying that I have won a holiday etc and to call a premium rate number to claim..... but sending messages like that is so irresponsible when you consider how young some mobile phone owners are

According to the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) website (here ):

Since 11 December 2003 it is unlawful to send an unsolicited SMS marketing message to an individual. If you would like to complain about the receipt of such a message please contact the Office of the Information Commissioner. If the message contains a premium rate number contact ICSTIS.

ICSTIS
(Independent Commission for the Supervision of Telephone Standards)
4 Maguire Street
London
SE1 2NQ

Tel 020 7940 7474 (9:00am - 5:00pm, Monday to Friday)

Complaints about premium rate services and/or their promotions can be made on our free helpline: 0800 500 212 (9:00am - 4:00pm, Monday to Friday). or in writing to: ICSTIS, Freepost WC5468, London SE1 2BR

Web www.icstis.org.uk

...although it doesn't look as though you can STOP message being sent to your mobile.

[malfunction]

Orange ought to be able to tell you were the message came from - AFAIK there's no way to 'spoof' the source address of the message (i.e. 6668) simply from a mobile phone so it SHOULD be a short code registered in the name of a company. However, just because you're on Orange it doesn't mean that code is registered with orange - it could be being provided by one of the other networks but I reckon they still ought to be able to tell you who it's registered to. If they can't then why the hell are they allowing messages to go out from that number? Also - make sure you haven't been charged for it.

[Rob]

ICSTIS are an absolute waste of time and money. I reported a scam when I downloaded a ringtone from the Vodafone website for £1.50, and when I got my bill I had been charged £1.50 eight times in the space of 30 seconds.

I still have not heard back (apart from the autoresponder) in 8 months.

[Agent]

Orange ought to be able to tell you were the message came from - AFAIK there's no way to 'spoof' the source address of the message (i.e. 6668) simply from a mobile phone so it SHOULD be a short code registered in the name of a company. However, just because you're on Orange it doesn't mean that code is registered with orange - it could be being provided by one of the other networks but I reckon they still ought to be able to tell you who it's registered to. If they can't then why the hell are they allowing messages to go out from that number? Also - make sure you haven't been charged for it.

Spoofing text messages is easy.
Random story:

When showing THCi how this could be done, i was planning to send him a text message from his "sister". I sent the message along the lines of "i love you, never felt this way blah blah". Next thing i know, hes phoning me up with a load of abuse. Im laughing so much, i cant make out what he's saying.
After about 10 mins, i stop long enough to hear "you sent it to my sister you idiot". And sure enough, id got the numbers back to front, and his sister got a text message off "him" saying how much he loved her and....ahem, nermind
He had a lot of explaing to do that night. I dont think "It was Agent" was belived for a while ! ;D

[Knoxville]

Just goes to show kids, never give Agent your phone number

Tis worrying though zak, both my younger sister and bro have mobiles and i wouldn't like to think either of em would get messages like that.

[TiG]

lol agent, but yes guys its well easy to spoof source addresses, mobile operators don't care two hoots about what is sent via them, they just want the money.

Same with premium rate telephone numbers and scams, its just a never ending story.

Orange customer services are useful, but then i'd never raise it to them, i'd get my contacts inside orange to sort it

TiG

[malfunction]

Well you learn something new every day... Do you just need to have a handset hooked up to the PC then?

[TiG]

i'd do it with a direct SMSC connection, but i would imagine anything i could do with direct connection to the system would easily be repeatable with handset and pc.

TiG

[malfunction]

i'd do it with a direct SMSC connection, but i would imagine anything i could do with direct connection to the system would easily be repeatable with handset and pc.

TiG

That's odd... Mind me asking who you're connected to? IIRC the ones we have at work (Voda, O2 and Orange) either reject any messages with an invalid source address or simply use the default address assigned to the connection if you change it...

[poolking]

Are you using a bluetooth phone?