Computer receiving text messages - any way to stop?

doodah · 19 May 2011 at 15:04

Excuse the lack of details, not your usual thread in this forum.

A friend of mine has just rung me as he is quite worried about his sister. I don't really want to into too much detail but basically his sister has just gone through a difficult breakup. She recently got an Xperia Arc but I believe it is under his (the ex) name and she also has another (much older) SE phone. The problem is, the ex setup something that sends all the text messages she receives (on both phones) to his computer. AFAIK - he has no problem with her keeping the phones.

I am aware of services similar to this (HTC Sense, MobileMe) but was unaware that you could do it with old mobiles. Does anyone know how this is achieved? Can it be stopped without using his computer? Unfortunately the nature of the breakup has made things very messy and his behaviour is not to be trusted.

I just ask we stick to the technical aspect of this thread as I have no knowledge of what service/software he could be using to do this. Thank you

Scottland · 19 May 2011 at 15:32

A factory restore on both phones should suffice.

There are apps for android (Xperia Arc) that can backup SMS to Gmail, and similar apps I believe - so a factory restore should wipe the phone of any apps. The older SE phone, is it still android? If so then the same applies.

doodah · 19 May 2011 at 15:39

Thanks. It should be ok for her to do a backup (to SD) of her contacts and then factory reset?

Scottland · 19 May 2011 at 15:44

I don't see why not.

I have to say though, I am taking for granted it's simply a case of an app of sorts relaying the text messages, so wiping it would clear all the contents.

Are you sure he wasn't just backing the phone upto his computer (i.e. USB) and reading the messages from there?

Myshra · 19 May 2011 at 16:01

Just factory reset it, it's a new phone and at worst she's lost some texts. Google will remember the apps she had when it reboots in the market. If her contacts are synced with google (tell her to login to http://contacts.google.com and see if they all appear there) she doesn't even need to back up them.

Scottland · 19 May 2011 at 16:05

Myshra said:
Just factory reset it, it's a new phone and at worst she's lost some texts. Google will remember the apps she had when it reboots in the market. If her contacts are synced with google (tell her to login to http://contacts.google.com and see if they all appear there) she doesn't even need to back up them.

Depending on how she setup the phone in the first place, it mightn't have backed up contacts to google - so it's worth logging into the URL above (or via Gmail) to make sure they are backed up.

By the sounds of it, she's also probably best changing all her passwords to something secure.

bulb66 · 19 May 2011 at 16:10

Could there also be something set up on the network providers side? i.e. Orange, O2 or Vodafone account feature?

Might be worth checking?

muon · 19 May 2011 at 16:42

If wavesecure is built into the ROM itself, a factory restore won't do much.

You need to find out exactly how it is working if you want to stop it.

Also, what the hell? How can anyone stand for being snooped on like that.