How is this even possible? - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

MoneyGuy · 03-14-2009, 02:20 PM

I text my son last night. I didn't type in his number but just reply to a thread of texts that has been going on since jan. 1. Anyway, I get a reply this morning from a guy who is not my son telling me I have a wrong number. I think my son is joking with me (he isn't) and we exchange a few texts. This guy's cell number ends with a 7 and my son's ends with a 9, otherwise they're identical. I asked him and his texts from me never included the previous texts prior to this happening, only those that started last night.

This other guy thinks this is hilarious and I'm wondering how this can possibly happen. How can a text message go to someone entirely different when the number it was sent to was correct, or is it possible that the number got corrupted somehow?

photon · 03-14-2009, 04:18 PM

Did you accidentally edit your son's phone # in your phone to have the wrong #?

Kybosh · 03-14-2009, 04:35 PM

Drunk dial? Just kidding.

MRCboicgy · 03-14-2009, 04:36 PM

I get random people's txts and MMS messages all the time...

Pierre "Monster" McGuire · 03-14-2009, 04:54 PM

You just got to have fun. All it takes is love and tenderness to send texts.

MoneyGuy · 03-14-2009, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by photon

Did you accidentally edit your son's phone # in your phone to have the wrong #?

Nope. Maybe I'll try sending my son a new text message where I actually put in the number this time and I'll see where it goes. A few years ago I was with Bell and I started getting cell calls for someone else. Turns out they had somehow given my identical number to someone else but mine remained active also. One of us contacted them (I can't remember which of us did it but I had called the guy and we talked about it) and because I had the number first, they changed his number. Also weird.

ken0042 · 03-14-2009, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MRCboicgy

I get random people's txts and MMS messages all the time...

Same here. I would say that one out of every 500 texts I send/receive either goes somewhere else or I get one from somewhere else.

cSpooge · 03-14-2009, 11:21 PM

there could of been corruption to the text as it was being transmitted and caused a bit to be flipped in the phone number thus changing the number that it was going to.

Wookie · 03-15-2009, 01:23 PM

yup, happened to me as well.

I was texting girl I was dating awhile ago while she was at a bar and I was at home, she'd send to me, I'd reply and it would go to some kid in Edmonton (who thought it was one of his friends messing with him) I cant remember if she'd still get them as well...

It was weird.

NuclearFart · 03-15-2009, 02:09 PM

Almost the exact same thing happend to me last night. I got a text from a friend (in my phone book, so their name was correct and everything), and when I hit "reply talk" to dial him, I got some completely random person. I'm with Bell if there's any other coincidence.

Phanuthier · 03-15-2009, 03:03 PM

I'll take my half-assed, non-professional stab at it since even photon doesn't know.

When you send a text, I believe you send the following info:
(flag request to transfer data... data transfer begin, address of destination, MESSAGE, end data transfer)

Inside of address of destination, it is of coarse sent in some binary code (1011) from your cell phone antenna to a cell phone base station. During transfer, there are sometimes environmental factors that cause bit errors, so instead of sending 1011, you might end up sending 1010. I think the bit error rate most cell phone makers target for is 1/1000.

Rathji · 03-15-2009, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

I'll take my half-assed, non-professional stab at it since even photon doesn't know.

When you send a text, I believe you send the following info:
(flag request to transfer data... data transfer begin, address of destination, MESSAGE, end data transfer)

Inside of address of destination, it is of coarse sent in some binary code (1011) from your cell phone antenna to a cell phone base station. During transfer, there are sometimes environmental factors that cause bit errors, so instead of sending 1011, you might end up sending 1010. I think the bit error rate most cell phone makers target for is 1/1000.

This does seem plausible, however 7 is 111 and 9 is 1001, although if they store the entire number as one 32 bit field (or 8 bits for area code, 8 for exchange and 16 for the last 4 digits) then there are alot more possiblities that could cause this to occur, theoretically at least.

lambeburger · 03-15-2009, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rathji

This does seem plausible, however 7 is 111 and 9 is 1001, although if they store the entire number as one 32 bit field (or 8 bits for area code, 8 for exchange and 16 for the last 4 digits) then there are alot more possiblities that could cause this to occur, theoretically at least.

This thread got nerdy really fast.

Phanuthier · 03-15-2009, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rathji

This does seem plausible, however 7 is 111 and 9 is 1001, although if they store the entire number as one 32 bit field (or 8 bits for area code, 8 for exchange and 16 for the last 4 digits) then there are alot more possiblities that could cause this to occur, theoretically at least.

Yes but remember that cell phone signals are encrypted (CDMA, 3G, etc) so 7 isn't 111 and 9 isn't 1001. Its whatever they were encrypted as.

Really depends on what Bell's service is, and their encryption could be more suspectible to bit error rates in the address (which can't be "smart" while text can be "smart" - i.e. spell check). Different encryptions and different implementations of hardware have different susceptibilities to bit error rates (tradeoffs between noise, gain, lower Vdd, etc)

(... I think I'm right... correct me if I'm wrong...)

(sorry for nerding it up)

MRCboicgy · 03-15-2009, 11:11 PM

The best are unintended photo messages, I get one of those a month vs. 3-4 accidental txts a month. Usually just dumb pics, but once I got a random long-distance picture of some guy's (rather unimpressive) junk. The accompanying message suggested he was trying to impress some chick. I provided an unflattering, rather judgemental response, to which he never replied, hehe.

SoulOfTheFlame · 03-16-2009, 05:01 AM

A few years ago I had a similar thing happen except it was for an emergency helpline number for people trying to get advice about kidney emergencies. (My number was very similar) It was very bad for me since the callers were all old people and often could not understand they had the wrong number. They would call back multiple times and get me by mistake. It got to the point where I had the real emergency number memorized so I could give it to people who called... It was almost like I was an operator for the service. As you can imagine, I changed the number eventually.