What is Fake SMS Sender and How to Trace it?

Sending fake SMS messages from someone’s mobile number without his/her knowledge or consent, a term that is technically known as SMS Spoofing, is an old phenomenon.
We were tipped by multiple readers about the availability of such SMS faking software in local market, however we then decided not to carry the news as it could aware the fraudsters of a new technique of fooling people.
Dunya News, however, carried this news yesterday by claiming that a new system has been introduced in Pakistan through which anyone can send text messages with a number ID of his/her choice.
Dunya TV said that this new system, which it dubbed as “Evil Mobile Software”, will allow anyone to send text messages from any mobile number which can cause serious privacy and social threats for anyone, especially the girls.
Since the news has reached the masses now, we thought of telling our readers a way of tracing spoofed messages through which you can prove that messages (with your number as sender) were indeed not sent by you.

What Fake SMS Sender can do?

By definition, with a spoofed SMS or faked SMS sender the originator of text message can set sender’s number of his/her choice, making it possible for anyone to send text messages from any number.
For example, with Fake SMS sender I can send an SMS which will show sender’s number as 0300-0000000, or I can set sender’s name as “ProPakistani” or anything.
This technology is used to send masked messages with alphanumeric names such as: Ufone, Warid, QAU, GIKI and so on.

How These Software Work?

All these software available in local market use services of international vendors for sending fake text messages. Countless international companies offer SMS masking to their clients who use their brand names as message sender in their marketing campaigns.
Few evil geniuses in Pakistan have developed desktop applications (they have named it VBG Fake SMS Sender) which can send text messages with any senders’ number by using network of these international SMS vendors (through APIs).
These local fraudsters are now selling Fake SMS senders by posting ads on classified websites to mint money, which is of course illegal.

How to Trace Fake SMS?

If you are victim of Fake SMS, i.e. if someone has sent text messages with your number with objectionable content then you need not to worry.
There’s a way of proving that message wasn’t sent from your number and that it is a Fake Message.
There are two ways to trace a Fake SMS:
1 – SMS center number of any spoofed message or fake message will be an international number, such as +445566776654 or +22XXXXXX or anything but not a Pakistani number (Pakistani numbers start with +92).
The SMS Message Center Number is a phone number that acts as a gateway for sending or receiving SMS messages between cellular devices. Since spoofed messages are sent by International vendors only, it is likely that SMS center number of a spoofed message will be an international number.
If you don’t know, SMS center number of a text message can be found by going in to message details.
For all messages that are legitimately originated from Pakistani networks will have following SMS center numbers:

• For Mobilink Numbers: +92300000042
• For Ufone Numbers: +923330005150
• For Zong Numbers: +923189244444
• For Telenor Numbers: +923455000010

2 – If you are a victim of Fake SMS then you can prove it wrong by obtaining your call detail from your cellular company. Almost all cellular companies (except Mobilink) offer online call detail records or you can obtain this list for respective service centers of mobile phone companies.
Spoofed message or Fake SMS will not appear in your call record, since it was never sent using your cellular network. Hence you can prove that a particular message was not sent by you or your number.

What Law Enforcement Agencies Should do?

Very simple, search on Google for those selling these VGB Fake SMS sending software. Call them as customers and get their contact details to hunt them down.
Furthermore they can contact classified websites to get these ads removed from their websites.

What You Should Do?

Spread the word, educate your FnF the ways of tracing a fake message. Report fraudsters to police or NR3C.

A journey from Amber to Fiber

“ELECTROMAGNETICS” IS at the heart of everything that is done with electricity. It concerns itself with the forces that charge particles exert upon each other. Electromagnetics is a word that was coined in the late 1800s to denote a newly discovered phenomenon that was the combination of what previously had been thought to be completely separate phenomena: electricity and magnetism.
The effects of electric charge have been known since 600 B.C. History records that the ancient Greeks discovered that Amber, a hard, translucent resin, attracted bits of material after it was rubbed with fur. Nearly 2,000 years passed before William Gilbert realized in the early 1600s that this same effect could be observed when rubbing a variety of substances together. It was he who coined the term “electric” using the Greek word for Amber, “elecktron”. In 1660, Otto Von Guericke invented a machine that produced static electricity and Robert Boyle discovered in 1675 that electric force could be transmitted through vacuum and observed attraction and repulsion. The first indication that electricity can move from one place to another came from experiments conducted by Stephen Gray in 1729. He found that when two objects were connected by a tube, both could be electrified when only one was rubbed. In 1733, Charles Francois du Fay discovered that electricity comes into two forms, which he called resinous (-) and vitreous (+). Benjamin Franklin and Ebenezer Kinnersley later renamed the two forms as positive and negative. This discovery (of Stephen Gray) led J.T. Desaguliers in 1739 to the discovery of a class of materials called “Conductors” that pass electricity easily. In 1745, a Dutch physicist, Pieter Van Muschenbroek invented the “Leyden Jar” the first electrical capacitor used to store static electricity and in 1747 William Watson discharged it through a circuit that began the comprehension of current and circuit.
In 1750, John Michel theorized that permanent magnet has north and south poles that attract or repel each other according to an inverse-square law that is similar to Coulomb’s law of force. In 1752, Ben Franklin conducted his famous kite experiment. He invented lighting rods and sold them throughout colonial America. The first quantitative theories of magnetism were advanced in the 18th century. In the year 1800, Volta developed the first chemical battery, which consisted of strips of dissimilar metals immersed in a weak electrolyte. The first evidence that electric and magnet phenomena are related came from Hans Christian Orested, who, in 1819, discovered that a steady current could move a compass needle, just as a permanent magnet can. This was closely followed by Andre-Marie Ampere’s discovery that electric currents exert attractive and repulsive forces on each other. In 1820, D.F. Arago invented the electromagnet. One of the most important series of experiments was performed by George Simon Ohm in 1826; he showed that when a constant voltage is applied to a conductor, the resulting current is proportional to the conductor’s cross-sectional area and inversely proportional to its length. Another important experimental connection between electric and magnetic effects was discovered by Michael Faraday in 1831. He conducted an experiment whereby two insulated wires were wrapped around an iron core and found that when the current in one winding was switched, a voltage was induced in the other and finally developed Transformer. In 1837, Samuel Morse invented the telegraph and in 1858, transoceanic telegraph cable was laid.
With the discovery of Faraday’s law, the stage was setfor the development of a complete theory of Electromagnetism. This was accomplished by James Clerk Maxwell, a professor of experimental physics at Cambridge University. In 1873 he published “A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism”. In this work, he proposed that just as time-varying magnetic fields can produce electric fields, the opposite is also true. Adding this conjecture to what was already known about electricity and magnetism, Maxwell produced his now-famous system of equations called Maxwell’s equations. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and in 1879, Thomas Alva Edison invented the light bulb. Edison directed the operation of the first central commercial incandescent electric generating station in the country. In 1882, it provided electricity to one square mile in New York City. The definitive experimental verification of Maxwell’s theory came in 1886 through a series of experiments conducted by Heinrich Hertz. He discovered Electromagnetic wave in 1888.
The most dramatic application of the new Electromagnetic theory came in 1901 when Guglielmo Marconi sent the first wireless telegraph signals across the Atlantic Ocean. The next two decades saw a host of developments in antennas, amplifying devices, and modulation techniques, culminating in the first commercial radio broadcasting in the early 1920s. Television soon followed in the early 1930s, followed by the radar in the late 1930s. Wireless communication is probably the most conspicuous application of Electromagnetics, since it involves the propagation of Electromagnetic waves through air or space. Nevertheless, Maxwell’s Electromagnetic theory has been equally important in the development of a host of other engineering applications. Other devices and systems in whose development electromagnetic theory played an important part include the vacuum tube (1906), the magnetron (1940), the transistor (1950), the laser (1960), and fiber-optic systems (late 1970s). Starting with the operation of TAT-8 in 1988 (8th transatlantic telephone cable), there is widespread adoption of systems based on Fiber optics from 1990. In fact, it is safe to say that Electromagnetic theory has been an essential ingredient in the development of every electrical device or system that we now take for granted.

How can PayPal boost online economy of Pakistan?

PAYPAL IS the global standard for payment transfers and for carrying online transactions. It’s a swift mode of payment that allows people to send and receive payments instantly.
Besides, majority of E-Commerce web sites rely on PayPal for charging transaction amounts from the customers.
The common problem for Pakistan’s 25 million plus internet users is that PayPal service is not available to them. It is either due to policies of PayPal or due to the hindrances it faces from local banks and financial governance institutions.
Many experts hint that PayPal has not yet started its operations in Pakistan due to technical as well as law and order concerns. Factors such as money laundering, funding of terrorists, weak banking infrastructure in Pakistan and lack of cooperation on part of the State Bank and local authorities may be hindering PayPal to land in Pakistan.
Who can play a role for removing those hindrances?
The government departments such Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), the industry support organizations such as Pakistan Software House Association (PASHA) and the infrastructure development departments like Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) can play an anticipative role for removing these hindrances that confine PayPal from coming into Pakistan.
Also it is the responsibility of government to improve the law and order situation in the country and make strict laws to curtail cyber crimes. Passing of an anti-laundering bill is another need that the government should resolve to pave the way for PayPal in Pakistan.
PayPal and Online Eco System Based on ‘Cash-on-Delivery’
Today most E-commerce vendors in Pakistan are relying on Cash-on-Delivery system in which payments are received at the door step of the consumer at the time of delivery of goods.
For businesses it means putting extra resources for payment collection which means an additional cost of doing the business. It also involves risk as many scams occur while delivering goods to far flung areas in the country.
Virtual stores can help businesses reduce costs
Moreover, selling goods offline involves more cost as the vendors have to open physical stores at different locations. Online stores can help them set up virtual stores through which they can sell anywhere in Pakistan.
If awareness is created to use online stores it can boost business activities throughout the country. Coming of PayPal would allow the local stores to grow their businesses which would consequently result in jobs creation. It will also encourage entrepreneurs to establish new internet-based businesses.
PayPal and Exports
Pakistan is lagging behind other developing countries such as India having 120 million internet users. Pakistani IT companies are not able to receive and send payments easily and find it difficult to sell their software and services online.
Here are given some statistics that will reveal the potential of PayPal in the modern global economy:
Total volume of transactions carried through PayPal in the year 2011 was $118 billion.
Annual online spending by US was 202 billion by the end of year 2011. It will increase by 226 billion in 2012 and 327 billion in 2016.
The IT professionals and freelancers in Pakistan face numerous problems when it comes to receiving payments from clients. Similarly, it is difficult for the software companies to sell their products internationally.
If PayPal starts to operate in Pakistan it will reduce transaction cost and hassles. Currently, the local businessman relies on less reliable modes of payments which are not only slow but are costly too. These are wire transfer, Western Union, Money Bookers, Payoneer.

How can PayPal boost online economy of Pakistan?

PAYPAL IS the global standard for payment transfers and for carrying online transactions. It’s a swift mode of payment that allows people to send and receive payments instantly.
Besides, majority of E-Commerce web sites rely on PayPal for charging transaction amounts from the customers.
The common problem for Pakistan’s 25 million plus internet users is that PayPal service is not available to them. It is either due to policies of PayPal or due to the hindrances it faces from local banks and financial governance institutions.
Many experts hint that PayPal has not yet started its operations in Pakistan due to technical as well as law and order concerns. Factors such as money laundering, funding of terrorists, weak banking infrastructure in Pakistan and lack of cooperation on part of the State Bank and local authorities may be hindering PayPal to land in Pakistan.
Who can play a role for removing those hindrances?
The government departments such Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), the industry support organizations such as Pakistan Software House Association (PASHA) and the infrastructure development departments like Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) can play an anticipative role for removing these hindrances that confine PayPal from coming into Pakistan.
Also it is the responsibility of government to improve the law and order situation in the country and make strict laws to curtail cyber crimes. Passing of an anti-laundering bill is another need that the government should resolve to pave the way for PayPal in Pakistan.
PayPal and Online Eco System Based on ‘Cash-on-Delivery’
Today most E-commerce vendors in Pakistan are relying on Cash-on-Delivery system in which payments are received at the door step of the consumer at the time of delivery of goods.
For businesses it means putting extra resources for payment collection which means an additional cost of doing the business. It also involves risk as many scams occur while delivering goods to far flung areas in the country.
Virtual stores can help businesses reduce costs
Moreover, selling goods offline involves more cost as the vendors have to open physical stores at different locations. Online stores can help them set up virtual stores through which they can sell anywhere in Pakistan.
If awareness is created to use online stores it can boost business activities throughout the country. Coming of PayPal would allow the local stores to grow their businesses which would consequently result in jobs creation. It will also encourage entrepreneurs to establish new internet-based businesses.
PayPal and Exports
Pakistan is lagging behind other developing countries such as India having 120 million internet users. Pakistani IT companies are not able to receive and send payments easily and find it difficult to sell their software and services online.
Here are given some statistics that will reveal the potential of PayPal in the modern global economy:
Total volume of transactions carried through PayPal in the year 2011 was $118 billion.
Annual online spending by US was 202 billion by the end of year 2011. It will increase by 226 billion in 2012 and 327 billion in 2016.
The IT professionals and freelancers in Pakistan face numerous problems when it comes to receiving payments from clients. Similarly, it is difficult for the software companies to sell their products internationally.
If PayPal starts to operate in Pakistan it will reduce transaction cost and hassles. Currently, the local businessman relies on less reliable modes of payments which are not only slow but are costly too. These are wire transfer, Western Union, Money Bookers, Payoneer.