ok. a friend of mine got a somewhat threatening text message. this messages content points to basically one person (or someone wanting to frame said person by making it appear it came from them). it would be difficult to prove this though as the number the text came from was his (my friends) own number.
so either it was spoofed, or it came from his own phone, like from anyone who would benefit from doing so (cough, cough. … his old lady. . … cough, cough). . … so it’s a mystery.
versus trying to have the phone company try to go all fbi on the situation, I think the best way to approach this is for him to get his own phone records and see if it did in fact come from his phone. I know that you used to be able to go down to your providers local store and they’d print that off for you (think early to mid 90’s), but now they won’t it seems (he said and it seems I read) .
is there some best way to get them to do that for you? to clarify - all he’s wanting to know is if his phone sent it to his phone.
OK, I just tested sending a text message to myself. When I do, I get two messages in my message log: One for the outgoing message, and one for the incoming. I presume that this is not what you got.
With both verizon and ATT my logs were available through their app or online portal with minimal trouble, except sometimes the logs were a couple hours behind real time. Id assume most carriers offer something like this. Im If it was from his phone or a phone with his sim I’d expect to see an outbound log enrty immediately followed by an inbound log entry. Restricted calls always showed 000-000-0000.
I gather that he wasn’t sitting there right when they came in. he’s not a 'must have phone within arms reach at all times" guy, so it’s completely believable that someone could have spent some time alone with his phone without him knowing and deleted the outgoing message (it wouldn’t be the guy it appears to be, he wouldn’t be there. it’d have to be some (not) random (not) stranger whose motives (are) aren’t clear, lol.
it happened a few weeks ago. I just now heard about this yesterday when I stopped by to visit. hopefully the possibility of getting those records isn’t an option that only goes back that far.
so I understand, these logs you mention, do they show the content of the text, or just the incidece of a text being sent &/ or recieved?
*in his case, he knows the recieved time. I can see someone wanting to find a deleted text not for the date &/ or time as much as the content.
his cell phone service is thru cricket. I’ve found 3 or 4 references online to them not providing log information to users unless they are legally required to via subpoena, but have been reading thru their legal info and haven’t found it at their website yet.
*I’ve been reading thru all of that wordy b.s. for long enough now to where it all looks the same currently. gotta take 15 minutes before I start back up
Well, the sent and recieved time would probably be only moments apart. I forgot to mention an important part. Mine always showed the number of both the sending and receiving party. So both those fields would have the owners number for both log entries. Mine dont show message content, but they do go back for several months at least.
That is what meant but I suppose if the phones clock is off they could be different stamps but I dont really know how that works.
apparently he would have to get a subpoena to have access to his call & text logs. maybe it’s because it’s a prepaid service (versus contract) that they do this. . … AT&T owns cricket and they apparently do it.
any idea how a spoofed number shows up on those logs? they fool the phone, so does that mean that they would be logged (in this instance) as coming from his phone, no different than if it actually had? if that’s the case, him trying to aquire his records would be a worthless pursuit.
The phone company would have more detailed information that could be used to (at least partially) track down a spoofer, but I don’t know if they’d release that in the report, or even if they’d save it. When a call (or text) goes through multiple networks, the originating network tells the receiving network what number the sender was using, and the receiving network takes their word on it. The major networks are all honest about this, but there are a few disreputable ones who aren’t, and so spoofing works by routing through those disreputable networks. But the receiving phone company still knows what network it came from, and for a text from yourself, that should (but probably won’t) be the same network.
In a way, though, all of this is irrelevant. You know that whoever actually sent the text was dishonest and intending to deceive, even if you don’t know precisely what lie they were trying to pass off. So the sensible thing to do is to just completely disregard everything about the text message, aside from the fact that someone who knows you is trying to deceive you about something.
only place you’re off base is that this 100% is someone elses phone (my cousins to be perfectly honest).
and since I’m being perfectly honest, my motivation to help him look into this is more about thinking it was his ol’ lady who sent the message from his phone (to divert focus about stolen money elsewhere), and wishing for her to get caught, if I’m right, than it is about anything else. it’s just got her signature all over it.
unfortunately, due to the needing to have the judicial system involved for him to ask for his logs, she may have won this battle.