----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Haninger" <ahaning@mindspring.com> To: "Joe Blanchard" <jbfixurpc@gmail.com> Cc: nanog@nanog.org Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 1:28:47 AM Subject: Re: OT - NO (Non-Operational) Question On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 12:22 AM, Joe Blanchard <jbfixurpc@gmail.com> wrote:
It appears there's really no easy way to determine the origin of a text sent to a cell...
For shortcodes, Neustar provided a list:
https://www.usshortcodes.com/csc/directory/directoryList.do?method=showDirectory&group=all
For regular cellular numbers, the Wireless Amber Alert site is popular amongst MVNO (e.g. prepaid) users to find out so they can use the email-to-text gateways:
http://www.wirelessamberalerts.com/
(You don't actually sign up, just enter the number and then it will tell you the carrier.)
For landlines/VoIP/etc. Google should be able to tell you at least the city/state. Though it's rare that you will get a text from a landline, it is possible.
I could be wrong, but I think the actual question was "is it realistic to assume a text to a cellphone came from the number it *says* it came from?" and I think the answer is "no, there are a few ways to spoof it". Received SMS messages are probably not evidentiary, absent a report from the receiving carrier of the message traffic log involved, which would itself be hearsay unless someone testified about it. Cheers, -- jra