How risky is this? I was told the other day that text messages, even when deleted from your phone, are stored in a database by your provider and can be accessed and used against you when being investigated. Anyone know of anyone who this has happened to? Of course the intelligent thing to do would be to just NOT send text messages of this particular nature, but unfortunately not everyone understands this.

depends on the carrier and on what your "illegal activity" is. If its something fucking stupid then dont worry but if its about robbing a bank and cops some how hear about it they will check the provider. But how the fuck would they find out? Its not like your provider is constantly watching over your text messages.

Seriously its not risky.

If your texting, oh lets rob a bank. Then a bank gets robbed, you wont get caught, caUse theyr not gonna look through each text. If you got a partner, and you get caught then they can go back and see who your partner is.

Worse thing to do is to post it on totse and tell everyone your plan.
Like the kid thats about to rob his private school of computers.

Cops love mobile phones for the simple fact that nearly everyone uses one and they aren't really aware of the fact that police can get loads of information off them.

As some one stated above if a bank were to be robbed, police aren't going to go through every single persons text messages. But if you have a partner and they get caught, they will check their messages and notice your number and what has been said. The police can bring up deleted SMS, MMS and even deleted pictures you may have taken. They can also see which area roughly you were in whilst you place certain calls because of the exchange towers to which the call was triangulated.

Best thing to do is just not discuss things like that over phones. Arrange to meet and keep it at that.

Texts are like E-Mails, to get from you to the people you are texting, the text message has to go through a cell phone tower. Not only do the companies have the ability to read and store your t-mail, they have the right to use it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_PATRIOT_Act

They use that as an excuse.

NO

They cannot see area/pics you took.

Your pics don't leave your phone unless you t-mailed them.

And unless you have a gps enabled phone, they cannot see where you were. and even if they could, it wouldn't be accurate.

No risk man, your in the clear.

Did you not read the previous posts?

Not that risky unless you already get caught doing crime, then they may use the phone as evidence and go through it to prove your guilty.

You could always use a cheap phone you can dispose of when needed or get a pre paid one to do all your dealings from.

I'm going to assume OP is on about in the case of drug dealing more than anything else.

I just use a certain lingo and dialogue that can relate to what I really mean but without actually saying it, just to be safe. It doesn't hurt to be paranoid SOMETIMES.

I'd wouldn't worry about it.

If your not comfortable discussing illegal things on it then don't and you wont have to worry about it.

Most people I know use them for simple "Dude I have your ounce or two of weed." They send the message like that. They have been doing that for 2-3 years now and they haven't gotten into trouble. Yes if you go off and rob a bank then one of the crew you were using to help rob the bank gets busted of course your going to get screwed over by your phone and texts but unless its full force really bad crimes your not apt to be screwed over by small time weed grabbing messages.

Why do girls always send text messages when they're trying to cop?

^ I make actual calls in dealing with these matters because its always what I've been taught to do (what I consider to be proper etiquette) and because I don't have the patience to wait around for replies. My concern (or curiosity, rather) is others texting me.

But I imagine the reason has something to do with females generally being more timid than guys. By and large they're less self-assured and confident. In extension, text messaging is the most comfortable form of communication. Also, girls just seem to like texting a whole lot more than guys in general.


So no anecdotal accounts of this happening specifically? Good.

I actually discussed this with an executive member of Bell today.

It sounds a lot like ISP's - they have the info, but won't necessarily give it away. Depends on what they legally can and want to do.

This has been my theory, especially since even guys usually send text messages when they're canceling a sack.

Triangulation is typically accurate to within a couple hundred feet or so. That's plenty close enough for tracking.

It really depends on what you are doing, and face to face verbal communication is almost always the safest.

Me?

Also just cuz you say to someone you stole something or did this or that dosen't make it true, so probably wouldn't stand up anywhere.

It likely doesn't help. In most courts, I'm pretty sure this would hold up. A confession is a confession.

i get texts every week that say "I got such and such bud X$/gram"

He's fine.

It's bad to do sure but if yu don't plan on getting caught fuck it. If you get caught selling drugs, that's pretty much the only way you're going to get your txts read. I think the basic gist of it is, if they are close enough to be able to get records from your phone company, you're already fucked one way or another.

Alot of people are really paranoid about this, but I really doubt anyone on totse is a big enough dealer to ever have to worry about "Feds"

This. From talks with the police liaison at Bell, there is only one person doing this job and he says he's lucky if he gets a call about it once a month.

All attempts at calling a phone are recorded. That includes ones where the caller calls, but the receiver doesn't pick up. The contents of the call are not recorded, unless the police believe it is necessary. All the information they have is what numbers were called from a phone at what times for how long. This is for every phone, not just ones under watch.

In some countries such as Singapore the first 10 seconds of every call is recorded. Some places use voice recognition on every phone call and listen for key words. I don't think this would be the case in a country such as the USA.

Text messages may be recorded depending on where you are. Pictures are certainly NOT recorded because that would take up far too much space.

A similar thing occurs with ISPs. For every IP address, the addresses it has accessed, at what times and for how long are recorded. There is nothing that can tell what information is being transferred.

Actually they can. If you go into your settings, there is a thing called "Location"

You can set it to E911 only or Location On.

E911 lets a 911 operator see your location, while "location on" lets your service provider see where you are.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhance...e_Enhanced_911

Do more research. Only calls that make some sort of connection - even answering machine, busy signal, etc are recorded. This information isn't an invasion of privacy - it HAS to be recorded in case of billing disputes.


Pictures that are sent are definitely recorded - they are sent to an online album and retained in the companies records.

That may be the case in America. I don't know. What I said is certainly what happens in Australia.

its called a prepaid phone