As I mentioned a few days ago, I’ve been getting a lot of SMS spam from one particular number. You can read that article for some background, but it turns out to be possibly more weird than that. According to Mark Lewis, the MD of Marketing Craze, the company which runs the lotto service advertised in the texts, they’ve never sent actually any messages to my number. They’ve received my “STOP” message that I sent in reply to them, but they have no log of ever sending to my number. And, it seems, neither does their SMS operator.

Now, that may be a load of tosh, but I’m inclined to believe it. After all, if they have been sending the messages to me, then they’re seriously in breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations and are in line for enforcement action from the ICO anyway – so lying about it is only going to make things worse.

What Mark Lewis asked me to do is to ask my own network operator for the sender number on the texts that I’ve received. Now, that isn’t the shortcode number (87770), which is merely the display number – it’s the underlying sender number, which isn’t visible to me. So I used O2’s online support form to ask them.

Unfortunately, one of the downsides of support forms is that I don’t have a record of my original query. But, trust me, I did ask them to tell me the real originator (not the shortcode) of a particular set of messages. I gave them precise times, just in case they needed to look it up in the logs.

Here’s their first reply:

Hi Mark

I’m sorry for any trouble that you might have faced.

You’re receiving interactive services through the short codes 87770.
This service is offered by a third party. This service offers:

– Ring tones
– Jokes
– Games
– Tarot
– Chat
– Mobile internet services (WAP) and more.

To cancel it, you’ll need to send STOP as a text message to 87770 from
where you are getting these messages. I’ve listed below the details from
where you are getting these messages.

It may take 5 working days for the service to be cancelled.

shortcode: 87770
company name: Marketing Craze
contact number: 08708 032 340

I hope the above info helps.

Regards

Leena Kaur
SMB Customer Service

Now, that clearly doesn’t answer the question. So, I tried again. Response number 2:

Hello Mark

I’m sorry for any inconvenience that may have been caused with this
matter.

As informed in our previous email, I confirm that the details of the
shortcode 87770 are:

company name: Marketing Craze
contact number: 08708 032 340.

I’m afraid it isn’t possible for us to provide the originating SMS
service centre number.

To stop receiving these messages, I’d suggest you to send STOP ALL to
87770 from your mobile. It may take 24 hours for this service to be
cancelled.

I once again apologise for any inconvenience that may have been caused
with this matter.

Kind Regards

Chaitanya
SMB Customer Service

Clearly, if the sender shortcode is being spoofed (and that is extremely easy; it’s even perfectly normal in some cases – I’ve worked on a project where we legitimately did so ourselves), then that’s no help at all. I already know that the messages appear to be coming from 87770, what I want to know is who they’re really coming from.

I have tried contacting O2 again, but in the meantime I thought I’d try another tack. When looking up the contact details of their complaints department, I noticed that they have a “live chat” option. Now, I’m not so optimistic that I thought I’d actually get an answer from the chat operator (since, anyway, they almost certainly don’t have access to the logs to be able to find it), but I did think that maybe someone there could point me in the right direction.

Fat chance. Here’s a screenshot of the chat log:

And, for those of you who find it easier, here’s a transcript:

Welcome to O2. Someone will be with you soon.
You’re through to Nieve.
Nieve: Hi I’m Nieve. How can I help?
Mark Goodge: Hi, I need to find out the originating SMS service centre number on a text that I received. How do I do that?
Nieve: Sure.
Nieve: I’ll be happy to help you.
Mark Goodge: so what do I need to do to get that information?
Nieve: I’m just giving you the Message center number.
Nieve: Please give me a moment.
Nieve: Thanks for waiting.
Nieve: The Message center number is +447802000332.
Nieve: I’m sorry for the long hold.
Mark Goodge: that’s the outbound number that I use when sending an SMS. I need to know the SMSC on an inbound SMS that I received.
Mark Goodge: that is, I need to know where the SMS came from
Nieve: There’s no any such Message center number from O2.
Mark Goodge: Yes, there is. Your logs will show it. Do myou have access to the SMS logs?
Nieve: Please be rest assured if your Message center number is correct +447802000332 then you can send and receive text easily.
Mark Goodge: no, you’re not understanding what I’m asking.
Mark Goodge: I don’t need to know *my* SMSC number
Mark Goodge: I need to know someone else’s SMSC number, the number used by someone who sent me a text
Nieve: We can’t confirm the some one else SMSC number but if you’re getting the text from O2 number then also the number would be same.
Mark Goodge: It isn’t coming from an O2 number. Why aren’t ypou allowed to tell me the incomining SMSC number?
Sorry, your chat’s ended – but we can’t tell why. Please try again if you need more help

(If you want to know how I know that +447802000332 is my own SMSC number, I found that via these helpful instructions)

Obviously, at this point I could just get back to Mark Lewis and say “Sorry, O2 are being numpties, I can’t help you any more”. And maybe I will. It is, after all, ultimately their problem, not mine – I’m not the one who has to prove to the ICO that they didn’t send the texts. But I still feel frustrated that I can’t find anyone yet at O2 who gives even the impression of understanding the question I’m asking, let alone being able to answer it. I have been assured by people who work for other mobile providers that this information is available, and should be provided to me on request. And, while Marketing Craze may well be a legitimate operator, O2’s response would be completely and utterly unhelpful and inappropriate if the messages were coming from a sender that was knowingly breaking the law and using SMS sender spoofing to obscure their identity.

So, while it may well be an uncommon request, it isn’t one that O2’s customer support staff should be unable to understand. Even if first line support need to escalate it in order to get an answer, they should still be capable of simply reading and comprehending my question. Or is that really too much to ask?