Network Settings Text

[Richard1962]

I've just received a text, which came from "Unknown" stating "Great news! We've just updated some of your network settings, please restart your phone to make sure it's up to date".

Is this a legitimate text from ee, or a scam?

[Shyam_H]

I have the same thing, this latest message seems to come from a sender ‘-EE-‘, but don’t they usually appear as ‘150’ ??  I don’t understand what a potential scammer/hacker/phisher could achieve through a phone restart on an iPhone???

[bristolian]

"I don’t understand what a potential scammer/hacker/phisher could achieve through a phone restart on an iPhone?"

Precisely this, although it applies to all OS not just Apple phones.

The majority of text scams are designed to obtain personal details, often by the use of fake web forms or suchlike.

As already posted several times above, there is nothing dangerous about restarting phones, hackers & scammers have nothing to gain from you doing so - and a device restart is often suggested as part of fault-finding.

[XRaySpeX]

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@bristolian wrote:

No harm can come from restarting a device, and no scammer has anything to gain by a user doing so.

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You sure about that? If a hacker can insert an OTA system update msg, as shown by an earlier post, that edits the APN to redirect some of its functionality, then rebooting the device at the hacker's invitation by text to actuate the new APN will lead you into unknown territory.

[bristolian]

Yes, I am confident in the accuracy of my previous posts in this thread.

[Shyam_H]

Hi XraySpex,

I’m curious to know more, but could you distil that into more layman’s terms??  Ie what are they trying to do and how do you think they can potentially do it?

cheers!

[XRaySpeX]

& so, @bristolian , you are implying that it is impossible to insert an OTA system update msg amending the functionality of the device, as postulated earlier?

[XRaySpeX]

@Shyam_H : I refer you to post 23 of this thread. I thought my Q was a distillation of that.

[Shyam_H]

Thanks!  Sorry I skated over that post and didn’t read it properly…

[XRaySpeX]

Well, it's the most complicated post of this thread 😉 .

[Degurosa]

I’ve had the same problem. First from Unknown (who I then blocked) on Monday, then from EE yesterday and again today. I’ve just rung EE and they’ve confirmed that none of these messages are from them. They also said that restarting my phone is a safe thing to do. As long as you don’t click on any links (which these messages don’t have) then everything is safe. EE said this obviously someone just playing silly beggars, but that it’s harmless and to just ignore the messages.

Because the messages appear to come from the real EE it will, of course now be impossible to tell if future messages are real or not. Advice from EE is that they will only send network updates if you have contacted them first with a problem. Any other messages they send, which may contain a link, will only link to your account login, in which case, just go direct to the website rather than clicking on the link. This way you will be safe.