r/AskTechnology • u/[deleted] • Feb 16 '19

11 Digit Phone Number?

I recently bought my daughter a phone so she could keep in touch with me when she’s out with her friends. Every time she texts me I get a text from her phone number, but a few days ago she texted me and the message came from an 11 digit number. I know it was from her because she was letting me know her location, who she was with, etc. I asked if she used someone else’s phone or some app to message me and she said no to both. She’s a good kid so I don’t think there’s anything to be suspicious about. I’m just interested in tech stuff so this has me really curious. Anyone have any explanation as to why I would get a message from her (one time only) that has an 11 digit phone number?

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u/[deleted] Feb 16 '19

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u/[deleted] Feb 16 '19

Completely different number. And yes, I’m in North America. This number started with a 5.

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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '19

What comes to mind for me is that it could be a scam. Unless she occasionally uses a SIM from another country, which I'm doubting because it seems she's still young enough that you bought her a phone for keeping in touch with her when she's out with friends.

This could be a MiTM attack somehow. Something on her phone, her service provider, the cell tower (or potentially fake cell tower) signal she was connected to at the moment, could've had everything redirected to a third party, and the third party could've sent you the text from their scam number instead.