Cellphone signal intercepted, text content changed?

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randaghostie

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#154741 6-Nov-2014 11:36

I was texting a friend early this morning at about 4:30 and I sent him a text that read "I know babe, and you've been trying and gotten interviews which is better luck than a lot of people. I'm here whenever you need to vent or talk about it, or I can even just cover you in kisses and cuddles to make you feel better :3" It sent just fine from my end, but apparently my friend received it as "I know babe, and you've been trying and gotten interviews which is better luck than a lot of people. I'm here whenever you need to vent or talk about it,om and sister in the kitchen until like 9:50 and left." First of all, I don't have a sister so I wouldn't be talking about one. Second, it definitely wasn't in my copy and paste on my phone. Third, the last text previous to this conversation at 4:30 AM was from Twitter at 11:34 PM and my Aunt at 10:02 PM the previous night. What could have caused this, and why? Should I take preventative measures for anything? Is something wrong with my phone, or was it just a signal mix up?

Thanks for taking the time to read this, any information would be awesome.

P.S. I have an LG Optimus G and my friend has a Pantech of some sort.

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1122 posts

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#1169900 6-Nov-2014 11:46

It must be the GCSB

/Gets out tin foil hat & Popcorn.

johnr

19282 posts

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Inactive user

#1169921 6-Nov-2014 11:58

Andib: It must be the GCSB

/Gets out tin foil hat & Popcorn.

JohnR joins you I will bring some Coke (Drinking Coke) not the stuff that goes up your nose

sbiddle

29269 posts

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Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#1169934 6-Nov-2014 12:10

What network?

There was an issue at one point with corrupted multipart messages on a certain NZ network. Without naming names I wonder if they ever fully sorted the issue?

robjg63

3160 posts

Uber Geek

#1169936 6-Nov-2014 12:11

Your message is ok until around character 156.
Txt messages have a maximum of 160 characters.
Long messages are usually broken into multiple txts.
I think that punctuation marks count as 2 'characters' for transmission purposes.
I would guess your message has around the first 160 chars of your message then part of someone elses.

Seems a bit odd - fault with the carrier?

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

Behodar

7163 posts

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#1169943 6-Nov-2014 12:25

robjg63: I think that punctuation marks count as 2 'characters' for transmission purposes.

You could be right; I've found that apostrophes turn into question marks when going from Telstra to Spark. It used to happen between NZ networks too but that was fixed years ago.

n4

956 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1169960 6-Nov-2014 12:45

Sounds like this issue:

https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=17769

Summary is that the problem is on the recipients phone. There is a mix up between different parts of multipart messages based on reused message IDs. An unwelcome side effect of the fact that smartphones store a lot longer text history than phones used to. Somewhere on that thread (or a linked one) there was a tool which would 'clean up' the message store on the phone.

Huawei Mate 7, on 2degrees

sxz

699 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1169970 6-Nov-2014 13:02

n4: Sounds like this issue:

https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=17769

Summary is that the problem is on the recipients phone. There is a mix up between different parts of multipart messages based on reused message IDs. An unwelcome side effect of the fact that smartphones store a lot longer text history than phones used to. Somewhere on that thread (or a linked one) there was a tool which would 'clean up' the message store on the phone.

Wow, i was very skeptical when following this link. Turns out it looks like a real issue. I wonder how many times this has happened, left one party confused, but neither party followed up on it to discover the error?

TL;DR see screenshot found on the above article: https://android.googlecode.com/issues/attachment?aid=177690159000&name=Untitled-1.png&token=ABZ6GAdjfTehXVBVQGhryE19-M35uRxWgw%3A1415231402537&inline=1

khull

1245 posts

Uber Geek

#1169973 6-Nov-2014 13:08

multipart messages are still a thing ?!

ubergeeknz

3344 posts

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Vocus

#1169977 6-Nov-2014 13:13

khull: multipart messages are still a thing ?!

Yep, but hidden from the users by clever smartphones. Or not so clever, in this case.

randaghostie

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1170164 6-Nov-2014 16:22

sbiddle: What network?

There was an issue at one point with corrupted multipart messages on a certain NZ network. Without naming names I wonder if they ever fully sorted the issue?

I use AT&T if thats what you're asking. Please keep in mind that I have no idea what multipart messages or NZ networks are... so i couldn't help you out answering those.

n4

956 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1170169 6-Nov-2014 16:28

randaghostie:
sbiddle: What network?

There was an issue at one point with corrupted multipart messages on a certain NZ network. Without naming names I wonder if they ever fully sorted the issue?

I use AT&T if thats what you're asking. Please keep in mind that I have no idea what multipart messages or NZ networks are... so i couldn't help you out answering those.

Ah. This forum is based in New Zealand (NZ). Hence the assumption about NZ networks.

See Wikipedia for an explanation on multipart (concatenated) messages. Basically when text/SMS messages are sent, they are split into messages of 160 (ish) characters each, and reassembled on arrival by the receiving handset.

Huawei Mate 7, on 2degrees

randaghostie

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1170172 6-Nov-2014 16:30

so basically what im getting from this is that its an error on the phone's fault, mixing up texts between pages, because it has my past texts still in the memory? or something like that? someone please correct me if i'm wrong or haven't gotten something. is this a problem i need to fix?

randaghostie

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1170174 6-Nov-2014 16:32

n4:
randaghostie:
sbiddle: What network?

There was an issue at one point with corrupted multipart messages on a certain NZ network. Without naming names I wonder if they ever fully sorted the issue?

I use AT&T if thats what you're asking. Please keep in mind that I have no idea what multipart messages or NZ networks are... so i couldn't help you out answering those.

Ah. This forum is based in New Zealand (NZ). Hence the assumption about NZ networks.

See Wikipedia for an explanation on multipart (concatenated) messages. Basically when text/SMS messages are sent, they are split into messages of 160 (ish) characters each, and reassembled on arrival by the receiving handset.

would explain why I wasn't sure what NZ networks were, not from New Zealand. i'll check that out, thanks

n4

956 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1170178 6-Nov-2014 16:34

randaghostie: so basically what im getting from this is that its an error on the phone's fault, mixing up texts between pages, because it has my past texts still in the memory? or something like that? someone please correct me if i'm wrong or haven't gotten something. is this a problem i need to fix?

Basically yes. And you can't fix it, the person receiving your texts has to fix it. Use the tool linked in the thread above - if it doesn't work then deleting all messages sent by you in the pas might help, and/or setting the phone to limit the number of stored messages from you (who really needs a message I sent them 50 messages ago?)

Huawei Mate 7, on 2degrees

randaghostie

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1170184 6-Nov-2014 16:47

n4:
randaghostie: so basically what im getting from this is that its an error on the phone's fault, mixing up texts between pages, because it has my past texts still in the memory? or something like that? someone please correct me if i'm wrong or haven't gotten something. is this a problem i need to fix?

Basically yes. And you can't fix it, the person receiving your texts has to fix it. Use the tool linked in the thread above - if it doesn't work then deleting all messages sent by you in the pas might help, and/or setting the phone to limit the number of stored messages from you (who really needs a message I sent them 50 messages ago?)

awesome, thanks so much everyone, we'll try to sort it out

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