Forum Discussion

FLAnalyst's avatar
FLAnalyst
Roaming Rookie
5 months ago

Why am I receiving unwanted short codes from foreign countries?

I have been a T-Mobile Magenta Max 55+ customer for over one and half years with no issues until recently.  About three weeks ago, I began receiving short codes with no message from foreign countries.  This occurs several time per day.  I called T-Mobile technical support and was told that they were issuing a trouble ticket.  That was over a week ago and no response.  Any one else have this problem?  Is there a way to block these unwanted short codes?

  • syaoran's avatar
    syaoran
    Transmission Titan

    There is no Wells Fargo in Afghanistan and Russia does not have Social Security.  As mentioned, they are spoofed scams.  

  • NMLP_user's avatar
    NMLP_user
    Network Novice

    Thank you for posting. I made the same observation and trying to understand why this happening. I did go backtrack the short code number and I do have posts from this same short code from prior months, but recently they are showing very strange routing. For instance, one of the short codes is from my bank a very large bank and the routing of the text is coming from the Congo. Makes no sense to me.

  • pgrey's avatar
    pgrey
    Transmission Trainee

    You’re getting a spoofed short-code notification, the header-metadata for the message has more info than is visible in the basic message.  Short-codes get spoofed the same way, even 911 can be spoofed in this way, with a motivated bad actor.

    I’d try blocking that thread, and then testing your banks’ shortcode by requesting a 2FA login, to make sure you still receive them, with the block (on the spoof) in place.

  • Yes, all my short codes are coming from foreign countries. Example Wells Fargo  Afghanistan, Mediacom Russia, Social Security Russia, this is more than alarming and the people at T Mobile can’t explain what is happening!