Downloading SMS messages

[KWestos]

Hi, I am working with SLT to stop a possible groomer. We have a year 11 girl who has been receiving unwanted text messages from this guy. What is the best way of extracting these text messages from the phone so I can use them in a document. The phone is a Sony K810i, I have used the software but cannot get access to the text's. Is there anything out there which will do the job.

 

Many thanks

[OutToLunch]

Don't touch the phone, get the police in or at least get in contact with them before you do anything which may be considered to have tainted the evidence the messages provide.

[fafster]

Don't touch the phone, get the police in or at least get in contact with them before you do anything which may be considered to have tainted the evidence the messages provide.

 

This.

 

There are tools to retrieve the messages from the phone, but I don't know if they alter the originals in any way. Best leave the police's forensic department to deal with it.

[muppet]

I completely agree with OutToLunch, don't touch the phone without talking to the police first. I did a brief stint with the National High Tech Crime Unit and you wouldn't believe the number of cases we had to drop because someone else had used the equipment before we got it and destroyed or altered the evidence stored on it!

[kmount]

You should have an AUP which states explicitly that any incident such as this is reported and handed over to CEOP/Police immediately.

[sparkeh]

Bitter experience, don't touch it, hand it over to police.

[KWestos]

You should have an AUP which states explicitly that any incident such as this is reported and handed over to CEOP/Police immediately.

 

The texts etc are coming from outside of School. The person in question confided with the Assistant Head

[ZeroHour]

I would find any backup software for the phone and see what it offers.

You could have a hunt through the backup files with a hex editor as well.

[kmount]

The texts etc are coming from outside of School. The person in question confided with the Assistant Head

 

Regardless of whether the texts originate from inside or outside of your establishment the suggested actions are the same. - In fact, given they are outside it's probably more of a legal issue.

 

I can understand and relate to being helpful but this is something as a school you can resolve on your own and to be honest if you don't seek outside assistance or advice you may be doing more damage than good.

[sparkeh]

Just to re-iterate, and agree with Kim, you may be doing more damage than good. If it goes any further, you messing about with the phone can be used in defence of this person.

 

Just imagine the scene:

Solicitor: "So, you used software to hack into the phone? So theoretically you could have altered or added data?"

[CHR1S]

When I have previously recovered sensitive information from a phone I had to have a witness watch everything I did. I then burnt to a CD which was placed in a sealed evidence bag which was then signed by myself and the witness. We then both had to sign a statement explaining what I did and how I did it and how it was witnessed.

[sstar]

right as everyone has said go to the police

but for future refrence you can use a program called myphoneexplorer to export all texts and other data from a sony erricson phone... our student support team use it to keep records of texts send and recived by students.

http://www.fjsoft.at/en/

Edited December 17, 2008 by sstar