I used to play bass for Cryptic Text

June 10, 2013 6:48 PM

I received a vague but personal-sounding text message from an @tmomail account (SMS email from a T-Mobile phone number) to my Gmail account. Is there any way to find out who sent it? Is it just a phishing attempt?

First of all, I realize it is entirely possible that the text was accidentally sent to the wrong email address. This isn't so much a problem as it is an urge to satisfy my curiosity. Relevant details:

The text says something like the following:
"I'm different now. And I'm sure you're doing great. I knew you would never have me. Thanks for tearing my heart out again."

My email address is [e-mail], and is a normal but not very common name. The number it was sent from looks like this: [e-mail] (the area code is from the southernmost part of Texas--don't know anyone down there). I googled the number and nothing scammy came up. The only person I can think who may have sent something like this to me (possibly replying to an old message?) does not live in the U.S.

I have obviously not replied, as it could be a phishing attempt, but would this even be a viable way to get information from someone (i.e. would there be harm in replying)? Would a text sent from an international T-Mobile account come in as a generic 10-digit number? And this is probably a long shot, but is there any way to find out who sent it?

Thanks in advance for any detective-ing you're able to impart!

posted by a.steele to Grab Bag (4 answers total)

The text is quite over dramatic. Even if it isn't a phishing attempt, it isn't worth wasting your time pursuing.
posted by SkylitDrawl at 7:03 PM on June 10, 2013

Probably spam or scam. Most people would just trash a message like this. If you take the trouble to follow up on this vague weirdness, you're probably announcing yourself as a good mark for the game.
posted by mattu at 7:17 PM on June 10, 2013

You could always try calling the number.

Perhaps you can satisfy your curiosity by getting the person to tell you all about their history with the person they thought they were texting, but it seems like a mean thing to try to get from a stranger just because you are curious.
posted by yohko at 7:19 PM on June 10, 2013

Best answer: Call up the number from a public phone box, tell them you're from the Technical Support Department for their Windows Computer, walk them through looking in the Event Log, and tell them not to click on the yellow triangles because those are malicious codes.
posted by flabdablet at 4:48 AM on June 11, 2013 [1 favorite]