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SMS: wrong number displayed on received texts

nickdalzell

nickdalzell

Extreme Android User
My friend texted me today, and he seems to blame my Android phone (he has an iPhone 5) all his texts show up as the wrong number. i told him he has to have changed it but he refuses to believe me. his texts come in fine, but the number showing as his number up top is not even close to his number which is stored in my contacts. as such, only the number, not his name shows on the texts. he has called his cellular carrier but they insist on it being my fault. how do i fix this?

The number it should be showing is 662-***-**** but it's displaying as 916-***-****

I think that somehow they (as in his carrier--AT&T) changed his number for some reason, but he won't buy it.
 
his contact name is synced with Facebook. i have not tried calling the 'new' number yet. my number shows up correctly when i text him, it seems to be a specific issue with his phone itself. problem is, he's contacted AT&T and they tried telling him it's my phone doing this. apparently AT&T's reps have no idea what is going on and are quick to blame my phone because it runs on Verizon, a competitor.

His carrier complains that they have never heard of that number. he tried texting his family and they get the correct number showing for him, but here's the thing--they all have iPhones.

Yeah, we're both in USA. he's in MS, i'm in KY.
 
Could be a sync issue or some type of contact corruption. If you go into the contact is the new number listed? Delete his contact have him text you and see if it still happens.
 
no, his contact has the correct or 'old' number. but when he texts me his name isn't displayed nor his contact photo. only the 'new' number, and since that isn't in my contacts it just shows the text coming from the number itself. there isn't some chance that the carrier gave him a special 'texting only' number is there? do such things exist?
 
He can be using a app. Iphones have Imessages they can use email or a # for that. Its only suppose to go to iPhone to iPhone but maybe he has a glitch somewhere on that end. Att or your carrier can do a ticket. They have a SMS tool called Metcalf to look in to see if it shows the correct #. It can be crossed in network or something on either phone causing it.
 
Is he using some sort of "free texting service"? I seem to remember that in my country, normally you can get unlimited sms for other people on the same carrier as you for a nominal fee, usually around an equivalent of US 20c per day, or around $12 per month. However, some services used to exist that allows you have unlimited texting to another carrier, but the person on the different carrier receives your message from a different number from the one you actually own.
 
He can be using a PC pinger is a free text free site. There is also an app for it. Yes he can be using an app. Androids have prankdial as well.
 
i am not sure what he is using myself. he has an iPhone, his family has iPhones, and they get the correct number showing for him. he could be using iMessage but i thought that only works with iPhone numbers? He did say that his second attempt to get hold of AT&T revealed that AT&T has an 'interlinking issue' whatever that means. he filed a support ticket for it.

This bug only affects texts sent to my phone number. he normally sends them to my Gvoice number or via Facebook Messenger. but he has started texting my number itself lately. that is when the incorrect number shows as his. and no, i only have the one number for him.

The only other possibiliy is Verizon is forwarding numbers sent to my Gvoice number to the default stock messaging app, and the 'wrong' number is one of Verizon's message center gateway numbers.
 
It could be some type of tower or dialing issue. If they filed the ticket and Att says they found it, they should be able to fix most likely its some type of routing issue.
 
that doesn't explain though why phone calls and texts from other contacts show the correct number, while this issue only affects one contact. it also happens with the native Messaging app, eliminating Google Voice as a possible culprit.
 
nickdalzell said:
that doesn't explain though why phone calls and texts from other contacts show the correct number, while this issue only affects one contact. it also happens with the native Messaging app, eliminating Google Voice as a possible culprit.
Click to expand...

Nick, it sucks, but this happened to me a lot, just with my GF's contact. For some reason the app would keep changing the number received by her....like 4 times a day, randomly.

I could never fix it, until I downloaded something that allows me to receive messages natively through the Messaging application.

This can also be achieved through the use of Voice+ on Cyanogen Mod.
 
nickdalzell said:
that doesn't explain though why phone calls and texts from other contacts show the correct number, while this issue only affects one contact. it also happens with the native Messaging app, eliminating Google Voice as a possible culprit.
Click to expand...

Did you ever figure out a solution here? I just converted from iPhone to Samsung, and am having this issue with my wife's messages, but only hers so far. I figured it had something to do with imessage, but AT&T isn't being super helpful here.

So far I've tried deleting her contact, as well as the history from the "wrong" number, and re-adding the contact. First message i got from her still shows up from the wrong number. It's also isolated to the area code in her number, the other 7 digits are fine.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
I know what happened. GVoice is set up to forward texts sent to the GVoice phone # to any number you selected in GVoice setup. so texts sent to my GVoice phone # got forwarded to my normal line, and the native SMS app picked it up. the reason the number the text was sent from was oddballish was because GVoice texts go to something called a 'direct access #' which was the odd text number seen in the native SMS app. so let's assume i got a text from phone # 555-1234 that was sent to my GVoice number, and seen on another line. Despite it coming from 555-1234 i see the contact showing up as 1-899-231-9999 or something odd.
 
I have a Galaxy S5 - my son has an Iphone 5 - both on AT&T - when he texts me - is area code comes up incorrect. I can text him - it's annoying but something in one of our phones must have saved something - if you have a fix - PLEASE let me know!
 
nickdalzell said:
.... the reason the number the text was sent from was oddballish was because GVoice texts go to something called a 'direct access #' which was the odd text number seen in the native SMS app. so let's assume i got a text from phone # 555-1234 that was sent to my GVoice number, and seen on another line. Despite it coming from 555-1234 i see the contact showing up as 1-899-231-9999 or something odd.
Click to expand...
...


Me no like.
If Alice sends Bob a message, sends it to his GV number.
Bob forwards all his GV messages to his actual carrier number.
Alice --> (Through carrier) --> Bob GV --> (GV forwards) --> Bob Carrier
When Bob gets the message on Bob Carrier, the FROM should be (pick any one...)
1) Could be Alice's number. So when he replies, he replies to alice.
2) Could be Bob GV, but Google voice should put prepend/append a note to the SMS
But some strange number in 972 or 406 seems to be a bad practice and user experience.
 
chanchan05 said:
Assuming you are both in the same country, that's odd. What happens if you try to call the strange number?
Click to expand...

Found this thread in a google search, looking for this same stuff! I'm in Alabama, right now, calling a friend, texting and their in Georgia, right? Well, in the middle of a text last night, a new number appears on their device with our texting continuing up under that one (not same as my phones number from BOOST Mobile). They let me know about this today, checking this new # out, it appears to be from Irving, Texas... wait, gets better than that! Calling this number rings my phone! Texting this number texts my phone, WTH!!!!!!
 
alright, so i'm using an iphone 6s and my sister is using a galaxy s8. we have the same problem, and as we're in the same room we're sure neither of us are using an app. she's on AT&T and i'm on cricket and neither of us have changed our numbers. we're trying to figure out how to fix this, i'll keep it updated
 
I've had the same problem .. and it's very confusing not to be able to identify who the message(s) are from.

WORKAROUND: The only way I have found to solve this is to add the wrong number to the Google Contact in the Google account I am logged into on my computer and phone (in case you have multiple Google accounts). Within the Contact's record, I add a Phone # that I arbitrarily call directgv (could be anything you want). After that, when contacts get synced to my phone, the correct contact name shows up on the messaging app.
 
I found out in my case that problem was in selected contact list. In android you can use more than one contact list at once. I've just turned off Whatsup and / or Viber contact list. Then I deleted sms chat with wrong number displayed. After that everything perfect.
 
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