So I got a group text message from one of my friends. The same friend that sent the group text also appeared to have sent me a download link of 1 KB in size. I clicked the download link, and then it just disappeared. Gone. Like it was never there. I asked my friend what it was about, and she said she never sent me a link. I checked my download history and nothing is there from today. What is going on? Did I get hacked with a fake text message? How can it just disappear after I clicked it?
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Text message had download link and disappeared when clicked
- Thread starter Skiandtea
- Start date
samsung questions
Lurker
Same thing just happened to me. text from my son and I asked him what it was before I hit the dowload button - then he hit it before I could stop him and the message disappeared and nothing in my downloads and he does not recall sending anything. Feels suspicious and makes me nervous.
Identical situation: Sender didn't send it. Nothing in my downloads. No history of the message. Sender was my mom, which is alarming as it might be a worm sent to top contacts.
Around the same time this message was sent, she sent a group message with me as one of the recipients. I don't know how text messages work under the hood, but I wonder if it's possible that my (Samsung default) messaging app hadn't "unpacked" the group message and put it in the right conversation yet.
Thought it was slightly reassuring that this was first recognized in a galaxy s5 active, while mine is a galaxy s6 active. I haven't seen the scenario described exactly the same anywhere else.
Any more information out there?
Around the same time this message was sent, she sent a group message with me as one of the recipients. I don't know how text messages work under the hood, but I wonder if it's possible that my (Samsung default) messaging app hadn't "unpacked" the group message and put it in the right conversation yet.
Thought it was slightly reassuring that this was first recognized in a galaxy s5 active, while mine is a galaxy s6 active. I haven't seen the scenario described exactly the same anywhere else.
Any more information out there?
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Just a guess. Scammers using a spoofed phone number possibly?
Possibly, but what would they get out of me clicking a download button. Mainly just wondering if I should be worried about it, and if so what I should do. It literally just vanished after I pressed the download button. The contact even went down in the list of recently messaged people to where it used to be.
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Maybe to install a malicious app?
Did it only happen once or repeated?
If I received a text message with a download link, which I haven't myself. I'd absolutely ignore it, and would NOT click it. Same with download links in emails and IMs.
I ran malware bytes free and AVG free, idk how accurate they are tho.
There was like 9 different ones from him. A few minutes before that someone else sent him the exact same thing but it was only once, (that same person sent me it too (which is part of the reason I just assumed it was a weird android feature to save bandwidth)
I normally would too but, the person that "sent" me the download was also in the same car as I was, I also asked for them to send me a few of the pictures they took earlier that day a couple hours ago. I was connected to an "extended network" so I just assumed that to save bandwidth you had to manually load the image.
I haven't really noticed anything odd yet, is there any pre cautions I should take? I'm thinking that it was either a glitch (hopefully) or a scam.
I haven't really been able to find anything else online about this.
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StevenRaccoon
Newbie
Can you long press the link and copy the URL?
It's not a link, literally just an android button with a download icon, when pressed it vanished. (I can't see it anymore and my phone acts like it was never there in the first place) we were driving in the middle of some hills and mountains so maybe it was just a random internet glitch but idk
They'll be OK for things they know about, unreliable for new exploits they've not fingerprinted yet. Same as all AV programs on any platform.
Hang on, you know the person who sent it and they sent it in response to your request? That is a very different picture from "random message from unknown person appeared with some download button", and increases the odds that it's innocent significantly.
So were they sending you pictures via MMS? I've not received an MMS message for at least 7 years now (I know nobody who still uses MMS), but in the very early days of MMS some additional action to download the media wasn't unusual. So I don't think I can exclude the possibility that this was some "download the content of the message" thing that didn't work. Did you ever receive the images you asked them to send?
StevenRaccoon
Newbie
Don't bump it when the last post was just posted that same day
I know the person who sent it but they said they didn't send anything
same thing as this except replace "link" with android download button
They never sent anything, that's just what I assumed it was.
No, I asked them and they said they didn't send anything yet.
Over the last 10 years or so, every cell phone or wireless forum I have been to has somebody posting about a mysterious 1kb file in a text message. I have never seen a consistent answer on what caused it. A few people will say it's this or that. There has never been anyone saying it's known malware or anything bad. To be honest, I wouldn't worry about it. If it was something bad someone would posted about it being bad by now.
Just two cents.
Just two cents.