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Imessage spoofing / phone hack???

T

tacos12

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 30, 2012
6
0
So something really weird happened earlier today that I cannot figure out...
I texted a friend of mine and imesssaged her for a couple of minutes before finding out it wasn't her and I'm wondering what sort of glitch happened or if someone hacked her or my phone or if any of that is possible...

here's our messages...
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I thought she was just joking around because we hadn't talked in a while...


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It was at this point that she called me and told me to stop texting her... because she had not sent any of those and she had actually watched the last ones being typed on her phone. The very last message was her telling me to stop.

What the heck happened? I was on a secure wifi network and she was using 3g, it's also weird because I was seeing the "read receipts" but she has hers turned off. Also, it came up and said "September 30, 6:00pm" when she sent the first message from her phone?? But that only comes up when nobody has messaged for a while and I had been texting "her" right before. Has anyone ever seen anything like this or have any idea what happened? Did someone clone her phone of hijack her UDID? I'm so confused...
 
Hard to say. Did the friend you were trying to iMessage sell or lose an iOS device? If so, it could be that whoever has it is now getting their iMessages, and that'w ho you ended up talking to. The reverse also could've happened (mystery girl sold/lost an iPhone and it ended up in your friend's hands).

Did the phone number of the person who called you to stop texting them match up with who you THOUGHT you were talking to?
 
She just got her phone about a month ago from the apple store. And it was her first iPhone so I don't think there is another capable device floating around with her information on it / I don't think her phone was ever someone else's. She isn't running Mountain Lion either so I know it wasn't someone on her computer Imessaging... and I don't think it could have been anyone on any computer with her email address Imessaging because wouldn't it have come to me from an email address?

And yes the number I received the phone call from was who it was supposed to be from.
 
Either she had to swap phones at some point or someone put her SIM in their phone temporarily which attached their phone to her account. iMessages attaches to the SIM. Google it a bit and you'll see it is a wide spread issue.
 
Haha that's probably true actually... but how did she get my phone to think a new conversation was starting?? with the date and time coming up? #confused:confused: I would have thought the same if it wasn't for that, and the read reciepts...
 
Maybe someone has her iCloud password and has added their device to her account. They could send/receive iMessages. And as of iOS 6, they can make the "caller ID" her number even if the message isn't originating from her phone.
 
I deleted her contact to see the number the texts were coming from, and it is her number. Would that still happen if someone made her number the "caller ID" ?
 
If she has any other idevices like iPod touch or ipad, her siblings could be imessaging from there. That's probably what it is. Any device with iMessage can send and receive messages and the messages would be received at multiple locations.
 
Yeah she is worried she just commissioned me to fix it haha. I haven't thought about findmyiphone i'll try that. also, can you get Imessages for Ipad2, and if she was signed in would it show up as her contact rather than an email address? I think her brother may have an Ipad...
 
tacos12 said:
Haha that's probably true actually... but how did she get my phone to think a new conversation was starting?? with the date and time coming up? #confused:confused: I would have thought the same if it wasn't for that, and the read reciepts...
Click to expand...

The date and time typically (not always) appears for the first message after every fifteen minutes (6:00, 6:15, etc.). So it is normal for a message at 6:00 to have a date and time displayed.
 
tacos12 said:
Yeah she is worried she just commissioned me to fix it haha. I haven't thought about findmyiphone i'll try that. also, can you get Imessages for Ipad2, and if she was signed in would it show up as her contact rather than an email address? I think her brother may have an Ipad...
Click to expand...

Yeah, iPads would shoe up as the email, not as a phone number.
 
XboxMySocks said:
Yeah, iPads would shoe up as the email, not as a phone number.
Click to expand...

As of iOS 6, you can configure it so that your iPad or your Mac use the phone number as the caller ID. That's what I did - I can iMessage anyone in my contacts list from all three of my devices and it syncs to my phone.
 
jester0723 said:
As of iOS 6, you can configure it so that your iPad or your Mac use the phone number as the caller ID. That's what I did - I can iMessage anyone in my contacts list from all three of my devices and it syncs to my phone.
Click to expand...

That is peachy and exactly what I'd wanted when I sold my iPhone 4. Awesome news :D
 
tacos12 said:
I texted a friend of mine and imesssaged her for a couple of minutes before finding out it wasn't her and I'm wondering what sort of glitch happened or if someone hacked her or my phone or if any of that is possible...
What the heck happened? I was on a secure wifi network and she was using 3g, it's also weird because I was seeing the "read receipts" but she has hers turned off. Also, it came up and said "September 30, 6:00pm" when she sent the first message from her phone?? But that only comes up when nobody has messaged for a while and I had been texting "her" right before. Has anyone ever seen anything like this or have any idea what happened? Did someone clone her phone of hijack her UDID? I'm so confused...
Click to expand...

When iMessage first came out, I had this happen. I posted here about it. A few other people had similar issues, but it never re-occurred and I've never been able to figure out what it was or why it happened.
I realize this isn't much help, but at least you know there have been other situations where this happened.
 
Think we have figured it out. Turns out her entire family shares an apple ID. Not something that I thought of as being a problem, because who the heck does that?? The problem didn't start until they updated their phones, and it is only a problem on the ones running ios6(they haven't all updated yet). So I guess there is some sort of crossover... maybe they changed Imessages and now it's attached to apple ID instead of SIM... also interesting. Her brother gets her Imessages, but she doesn't get his... she updated her phone first. And now she gets her dad's but he doesn't get hers.... lots of really cool confusing stuff haha I sent her to the apple store I'm tired of trying to solve problems.
 
tacos12 said:
Think we have figured it out. Turns out her entire family shares an apple ID. Not something that I thought of as being a problem, because who the heck does that?? The problem didn't start until they updated their phones, and it is only a problem on the ones running ios6(they haven't all updated yet). So I guess there is some sort of crossover... maybe they changed Imessages and now it's attached to apple ID instead of SIM... also interesting. Her brother gets her Imessages, but she doesn't get his... she updated her phone first. And now she gets her dad's but he doesn't get hers.... lots of really cool confusing stuff haha I sent her to the apple store I'm tired of trying to solve problems.
Click to expand...

They just need to look at what email address's are being used in iMessage on each device. It might be worth it for them go create there own individual appleid's for iMessage and FaceTime. Perhaps if they have here own iCloud accounts they can use them for iMessage as well
 
tacos12 said:
Think we have figured it out. Turns out her entire family shares an apple ID. Not something that I thought of as being a problem, because who the heck does that?? The problem didn't start until they updated their phones, and it is only a problem on the ones running ios6(they haven't all updated yet). So I guess there is some sort of crossover... maybe they changed Imessages and now it's attached to apple ID instead of SIM... also interesting. Her brother gets her Imessages, but she doesn't get his... she updated her phone first. And now she gets her dad's but he doesn't get hers.... lots of really cool confusing stuff haha I sent her to the apple store I'm tired of trying to solve problems.
Click to expand...

Mine does too, for whatever the hell reason:confused: I'm not a part of this obviously haha
 
If you don't want to see anyone else's messages on your Family Plan, make sure that under Settings > Messages > Send & Receive you and all others sharing the same Apple ID have only your own phone number checked. Uncheck all other numbers if listed. The Email Address will also be shared so uncheck that one, too, or change each device to a unique one in that Setting.
 
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