Security Concern - text messages

[Anonymous]

I was recently away for work with a colleage for one night.  While we were away text messages sent to me also appeared on my colleague's phone.  They showed as having what I know to be my husband's number.  These texts also appeared on his own phone as new messages.

I find this really worrying - my husband was sending me texts which were duplicated to my colleagues phone.  He does not know my colleague or have her phone number, nor have I used his phone previously.

My colleague complained to her mobile phone company (Talk Talk) and was told it was impossible for this to happen.  Obviously it isn't!

I find it extremely concerning that this could happen for the privacy of texts generally.  I would be really grateful if anyone could explain how this could have happened!  My phone is Tesco, my husband's is O2 and my colleague's phone network is Talk Talk.  We were away near Birmingham, we live in the North East of England if that helps at all.

[Curr946]

Check your contact card on hubby's phone doesn't have two numbers stored under it. But it's a far fetched possibility of causing this.

[MI5]

There really isn't anyway a standard SMS can be delivered to a different phone via the gsm network.
The only way it can happen is imesaages on iphones with shared accounts.
You can get apps on android that will forward an SMS but you would have to have installed the app and set it up to do so.
I don't even believe you can forward SMS messages by BT or NFC either automatically.

[Bambino]

I did say in my earlier post that I wasn't sure you could do this via BT or NFC. Apart from anything else, the OP doesn't even know what NFC is, so it would certainly rule that method out. If it was possible, it would have to be deliberate, and the OP said the messages just appeared without doing anything, which makes this even more puzzling.

[MI5]

The only way on android is deliberately.

[jonsie]

A conundrum, maybe Samsung can shed a little light on this.

[Cleoriff]

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@jonsie wrote:

A conundrum, maybe Samsung can shed a little light on this.

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To be honest it's Samsung I would be contacting. On this occasion the text was probably innocuous. I shudder to think what the reaction would have been from the OPs colleague if it had been a text full of negative comments about her/him,. I often went to events with my boss ...who was a bit of a rottweiler. ..Yes it doesn't bear thinking about #justsaying.....

[MI5]

If I was the OP I'd be checking my phone to see if there are any SMS Forwarding apps installed too (also check under hidden apps).

[jonsie]

That would be the most plausible reason for this happening.

[MI5]

A couple more questions for @Anonymous

Do you use the standard sms app on phone or is it whatsapp, hangouts or some other?

Does this happen for every message, regardless of your location or proximity to your colleagues phone or can it happen with texts only sent when you are near to each other?

[Bambino]

As a matter of interest, I just did a little experiment and was able to send a received text message from my phone (Nexus 5) to my tablet (Samsung Galaxy Note 10 2014 edition), by Bluetooth File Transfer. However, the text wasn't sent to my Message app, but to a Polaris Office file. The Message app wasn't offered as a choice to receive the file, and I had to do a fair amount to get the text from one device to the other. I'm sure this means absolutely nothing in relation to the OP's problem, but it is possible. I don't have two NFC capable devices, so I couldn't try that method.