
Text messages being resent from February, in November - ryanmercer
https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/7/20953422/text-messages-delayed-received-overnight-valentines-day-delay
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ryanmercer
I first learned about this in the Google FI subreddit here
[https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleFi/comments/dszauf/unexpected...](https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleFi/comments/dszauf/unexpected_early_morning_messages/)

I was one of the people that received a message, just before 4am ET I received
a message from someone I am not on speaking terms with and replied in a
fashion one would expect for dealing with such an individual. Yay fun. Someone
in another thread in that sub had reported they received a message from their
ex calling them babe, and also replied.

My question here is, why is there some server out there that is storing
messages from at least 4 carriers from 9 months ago and resending them.

I assumed carriers kept our messages for a certain length of time, and that
one or more government agencies might store them indefinitely, but why is some
random server out there holding onto messages for 4 major carriers for 9
months and as configured in some way that allows it to resend those messages
NINE months later?

Forget the security implications of this, what about people that received
messages from a friend/family member/co-worker/loved one that has since died
like in the article:

>one person said they received a message from an ex-boyfriend who had died;
another received messages from a best friend who is now dead.

Can anyone familiar with this part of the communications industry speculate on
why such a thing is even possible or shed some light on just how long these
messages might be stored on such servers?

~~~
vb6sp6
Telcos use a third parties to transfer messages between networks so you can
sms anyone (eg att to Verizon). Someone like Syniverse probably restored a
database from Feb which caused the resends.

They store the data because it's valuable.

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joshstrange
The conspiracy theorist in me says that unnamed "vendor" is a 3 letter agency
that had a bunch of messages drop into a dead-letter queue or similar and
something caused them to all be re-processed... a la Room 641A (Yes I know in
Room 641A they weren't in the middle but just saving off a copy but still).

------
basch
better headline: Across major US carriers people received text messages sent
Valentine's Day

Its not clear that the messages are being resent. They appear to being
delivered for the first time.

~~~
ryanmercer
>Its not clear that the messages are being resent. They appear to being
delivered for the first time.

This thread has multiple people reporting receiving messages they'd already
received previously:

[https://old.reddit.com/r/GoogleFi/comments/dswhi2/random_tex...](https://old.reddit.com/r/GoogleFi/comments/dswhi2/random_texts_at_310_am/)

