Someone is sending texts from my phone number, how?

538    Asked by AnnaBall in Cyber Security , Asked on Mar 11, 2022

A friend said her husband was sleeping on the couch, and she got a text that appeared to come from his phone, but he didn't send the text. Is this possible to do, and, how can she trace the origin? The text that she got on her phone showed up on his text screen on his phone as well.

Answered by Anisha Dalal

The answer to - someone is sending texts from my phone number is that There are web-based services out there that allow someone to spoof the origin of SMS. Most of the time, they're used by legitimate businesses (e.g., a store) and they're faking the origin for a legitimate purpose. For example, you could get a text from the business whose name is "1-800-FLOWERS" and they could actually set the origin so that it appeared that you received an SMS from +1 800 356-9377. Or they could even make it appear that it came from "1-800-FLOWERS" or whatever. It didn't originate on a phone at all. A computer program sent it. The other answers (an app on the phone) are far more likely. But my point is that we shouldn't think that SMS messages can only originate from an actual phone. There are lots of online services out there that let people write programs to send SMSes. Spammers use such programs a lot. But hackers or pranksters could use such a service to send fake messages that would appear to come from whomever. You, as a person who received an SMS, would have a hard time figuring out that it wasn't legit. While it can be figured out, you won't figure it out by looking at the receiver's phone.



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