Strange message. Spam? Or what?

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LEM - 10 Apr 2006 02:45 GMT

I received the most strange SMS this evening. It came from number "129",
which is supposedly a service number for T-mobile, and it read:

Please call "25"

(with quotes just as above).

Does anyone have any clue as to what this could mean? In a wake of all
recent spam reports it sounds a little strange, but why would it come
from one of the numbers which seems like a t-mobile sent it, and what is
"25" ???

Any clues?

LEM
(leave out all digits to get correct e-mail address)

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Steve Sobol - 10 Apr 2006 03:32 GMT

> I received the most strange SMS this evening. It came from number "129",
> which is supposedly a service number for T-mobile, and it read:
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
> Any clues?

Yes. If someone sends you a numeric page from the voice mail system, it comes
from shortcode 129. (Try it yourself - you can dial your own phone number
from a landline, and just not answer. Dial 5 to leave a numeric page.)

If you choose to leave a numeric page, the T-Mo voicemail system uses your
caller id by default. Either someone was calling from a phone line where
caller ID was blocked and had to enter their phone number, or chose to
override the default, and they probably failed to enter the entire number.

Signature

Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows
Apple Valley, CA
Resident of Southern California -
the home of beautiful people and butt-ugly traffic jams

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LEM - 10 Apr 2006 04:17 GMT

>> Any clues?
>
> Yes. If someone sends you a numeric page from the voice mail system,
> it comes from shortcode 129.

Thanks, Steve!

I completely forgot that there even exist such a thing as numeric page,
as nobody sent me one for years.

LEM.
(remove all digits from e-mail for real address)

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Brain_Dead - 10 Apr 2006 14:35 GMT

Before responding, try calling customer care to see if it is legitimate.

Storm

>>> Any clues?
>>
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> LEM.
> (remove all digits from e-mail for real address)

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LEM - 10 Apr 2006 17:31 GMT

> Before responding, try calling customer care to see if it is
> legitimate.

Well, I think Steve put all dots over i's with his explanation. Somebody
tried calling me, hit the voicemail, somehow got into numeric paging
part and entered "25" either trying to navigate the menus (some of
people who call me are not exactly technically savvy, plus speak very
poor english, so they can easily get lost in even the simplest ones) or
otherwise entered number wrong... So for me this case is closed.

However, you are 100% correct, it is never a good idea to respond to
messages you did not anticipate and have no idea where they come from.
Some of them can be scams trying to make you call some premium services
which are charged $$$ on your bill.

LEM
(leave out all digits from e-mail address)

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