Iphone 5 major security issue???

[Anonymous]

Hi

I upgraded from iphone 4 to iphone 5 on launch day.

Yesterday something very strange happened and I think it's a pretty serious problem!

I received a text message from a number that I don't know.  The text started 'Hi Anne' - so I know it wasn't intended for me.  I assumed that somebody had entered the wrong number, so I ignored the text.

A ouple of hours later, I received another text - this one from Anne, replying to the text I had received earlier.  It joined the thread of the original text message.  At this stage I assumed that I was part of a group text message, and somebody had my number by mistake.

However, when I checked - I now have the entire conversation history between these 2 people in my messages!  This includes messages they sent to each other last week - before I received the first message!!!

To put this in context.  Imagine you and your friend have been texting each other for weeks.  Tonight you send a text to this friend, but also to a 3rd person, asking them both if they fancy going out.  The third person can then see every message that you and your friend have sent to each other!

Called O2 this morning and they have taken details but have never heard of this before.  I still have the messages, and the thread is growing as these 2 people text one another.  I don't want to text and tell them as I don't give my number to strangers.

Got to be concerning if this is normal?  Anybody else experienced this?

Thanks

[perksie]

How weird, make sure you keep a record of everything that goes on with this.

If it's a crossed line of some sort only O2 can sort this out.

[adamtemp64]

Are they genuine sms or imessages?

[Anonymous]

Weirdly one of each! The messages from one of the people is showing grey as SMS, messages from the other person are blue like Imessages

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

This I think is an Apple server issue rather than an iPhone 5 problem. See the following thread on the Apple forum.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3514331?start=0&tstart=0

I was worried about this so I followed Apple's advice by removing my sim card first and then resetting my old iPhone 4 using "Erase all Contents and Settings".

If you go to the last page on the thread and click on the link to take you into the Apple support profile where your registered devices are, you can remove old products, but I still don't think this resolves it, as I also did that after resetting my phone.

Luckily I sold my old iPhone 4 to a friend who gave it to his daughter, and they asked me to help set it up for her. However after we activated the phone with her sim card and set it up as a new phone, I was shocked to see that it retained some of my Apple ID's in some settings (itunes I think), but iMessage was ok. Fortunately I was able to go through those settings and just deleted my account details off the phone and set it with hers.

I suggest you log into your Apple ID profile page and make sure your old phone is not registered to you, and see if this stops the problem.

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Thanks - however, when I received the texts the old phone was still in my possession with no sim in it

[Anonymous]

I have deregistered the old phone anyway, so thanks for the tip.

Still dont think this caused the problem though as I still owned the old phone when the texts arrived!

[Anonymous]

I must admit, the problem I mentioned should just allow iMessages to be seen, so the fact that you are receiving sms texts as well, made me wonder if it was the same issue.

I hope you find a solution to this.

[Anonymous]

Do you still have your old iPhone 4 ?

The reason I ask is that if they send a lot of texts each day, then you could try putting your sim back into your old phone for a day to see if the texts stop.

This could help determine if it is really an iPhone 5 issue or something else.

[Anonymous]

Hi 

I have had something similar today.  I upgraded my iphone 3Gs Monday evening to ios 6.1.  This morning I had a text conversation with a friend.  This afternoon my partner and I were driving and talking, when we arrived at our destination he said he had just received a text from me.  It was an image of the conversation, except for the fact that it did not have my friends contact name on it but her number.  The image was accompanied by the imessage saying What is this? :L  

Neither one of us could have sent it as our phones were in our pockets and we were together, and also the contact name wasnt in the image.  

The security is now a concern for me.  Any ideas?