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MacUser09

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 26, 2009
288
54
UK
I have an iPhone with a PAYG card that I use when abroad. Had same tel no. for a while now.

On this trip, although I topped up, I started getting messages that I had no credit left despite making only a few calls, and had been on the net only via wifi.

Spoke to service provider. They told my that my phone was texting a certain number roughly every ten minutes. Even at night while I was asleep.

They are looking into it, but in the meantime, I can't make any calls because as soon as I top up, the credit disappears with an hour.

I have a lot of apps on my phone, and have tried deleting some, and switching off notifications, but thought that I would ask here if anyone has any suggestions on what else I might try while waiting for the provider to get back to me tomorrow.

None of the texts are showing up as sent in my messages app. It was only visible to my service provider by their call records.

They told me the number, but it is nothing that I know. Didn't even look like a regular number.

Any suggestions folks?
 

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
Sounds like the phone is sending messages trying to activate facetime or imessage.
It usually does it on its own without you knowing and if you're out of country it will be an international message and will eat up your credits.
 

kmichalec

macrumors 6502a
Aug 14, 2010
878
284
I would put the phone in Airplane mode overnight (or even turn it off completely), so that it cannot connect to any Cellular signal, Wifi, Bluetooth, etc, and then check to see if they have record of messages going out during that time. If so, then it's most likely not your phone doing it. If the messages stopped during that time, then it's something on your phone.

Another question, have you jailbroken your phone? If so, did you change the Root Password after you jailbroke it? If not, maybe your phone was hacked.

Just my thoughts.

----------

Sounds like the phone is sending messages trying to activate facetime or imessage.
It usually does it on its own without you knowing and if you're out of country it will be an international message and will eat up your credits.

Applejuiced,

I didn't think that iMessage or Facetime used text messages to activate, they would use data to connect to the servers and activate. The OP said it's physical text messages that the provider is saying are being sent.
 

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
Applejuiced,

I didn't think that iMessage or Facetime used text messages to activate, they would use data to connect to the servers and activate. The OP said it's physical text messages that the provider is saying are being sent.

Its a well known issue for years now.
It sends an international text message to Apples activation servers.
There's tons of threads online.
Here's a few with the same issue.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3390466?start=15&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5025268?start=0&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4939126?start=0&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2558450?start=0&tstart=0
 

kmichalec

macrumors 6502a
Aug 14, 2010
878
284
Its a well known issue for years now.
It sends an international text message to Apples activation servers.
There's tons of threads online.
Here's a few with the same issue.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3390466?start=15&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5025268?start=0&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4939126?start=0&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2558450?start=0&tstart=0

I stand corrected. That's why your the Demi-god, and I'm just a follower. I learned something new today.

Thanks!
 

MrMacMack

macrumors 6502a
Oct 24, 2012
837
0
Its a well known issue for years now.
It sends an international text message to Apples activation servers.
There's tons of threads online.
Here's a few with the same issue.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3390466?start=15&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5025268?start=0&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4939126?start=0&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2558450?start=0&tstart=0

That's crazy activity right there. Wow
 

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
I stand corrected. That's why your the Demi-god, and I'm just a follower. I learned something new today.

Thanks!

No prob, we're all here to learn and assist each other.;)
When I first heard it too I was like why would they do the activation that way? Hope they change it in the future cause it can get costly and some that don't have international texting enabled might not be able to activate all features of their iphone.
 

MacUser09

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 26, 2009
288
54
UK
Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

kmichalec...No, I have not jailbroken my phone.

I have not heard back from the service provider's tech team yet, but the guy in their shop called me this morning and offered to change the SIM, but keep my number.
I am going to try this to see if it works. Fingers crossed. Plus, I will switch off FaceTime for now.
 

MacUser09

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 26, 2009
288
54
UK
Just in case anyone else ever suffers the same problem.

It turns out that when I landed here, and activated the 3G internet package that I normally use, the package wasn't actually activated, so the phone kept sending texts trying to access the 3G internet every ten mins which was draining my credit.

Service provider has credited my account and activated internet package.

Thanks for all input guys.
 
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