Issues reporting Smishing to 7726

[MZone]

I tried forwarding a Smishing SMS to 7726 and got 2 replies instantly. Problem is usually the 1st reply asks for you to reply with the number the SMS came from and then when you do that you get a reply to say thanks and it’s been reported. Now it’s not giving you the chance to reply with the number and the 2nd message says sorry and to contact customer services. Tried it twice and same thing happened again. Please can this be raised as an issue @JonathanB 

 

[JonathanB]

Hi @MZone,

Thanks for flagging this up. I've given this a quick test this morning, and 7726 seems to be working okay now. Is the issue still persisting for you?

Thanks,
Jonathan

[MZone]

Still happening when I forward the original message as per my screenshot. I tested it with removing the URL from the message and it worked so appears the URL being contained with the forwarded message is causing the issue. 

[JonathanB]

Hmm that's odd, my test had a URL in there too, as you can imagine, most Phishing SMS will do 😅

.de indicates German domains if I'm not mistaken. Well good news that the service isn't down overall anyway. I'll pass this insight on, and hopefully we can figure out why it's not working in this specific circumstance. If it is a more widespread issue, we'll hopefully see some other customers posting about this.

[MZone]

This was the original message so I highlighted it and selected forward. It then changed it slightly as per the original screenshot. Can you try it by copying the above one instead. 

[JonathanB]

Hey @MZone,

Thanks for this, interestingly this doesn't happen on Android, but we did just replicate this on iPhone. So it seems to relate to how iOS handled the link. Just to check, when you get those 2 responses immediately, what happens if you then reply with the sender's phone number regardless?

Thanks,
Jonathan

[MZone]

If you reply with the senders phone number after getting the 2 responses it treats it as if you are reporting a new spam SMS and asks for you to reply with the senders phone number. 

 

[JonathanB]

Thanks for confirming @MZone, we've reached out to some contacts in the Customer Protection Teams so that we can look into this further.

[MZone]

Thanks @JonathanB for testing this and raising this to the relevant team. I’m glad it wasn’t just me!

[JonathanB · Accepted solution]

Hi @MZone,

Sorry it seems to be an issue with how iOS handles the link as opposed to there being an issue with the 7726 system.

Your phone is separating the link out into a 2nd SMS. Then when you forward this on, message 1 arrives, and the link is being treated as message 2 i.e. the answer to the request for the sender's number.

Not ideal, but if this happens, try sending it as 2 reports.

Can you try reporting "Goods can't be delivered..." without the link, then reply when prompted for the number, then send a 2nd report with the URL, and again confirm the number?

Sorry this is a little awkward, but the good news is we're looking into this very subject with Apple. Hopefully in the not too distant future you'll be able to report Spam directly from your messaging app options, without having to copy or forward the messages.

Thanks,
Jonathan