HTC One Sending strange texts

[Kippaxman]

My HTC One has starting sending texts to 33819253539035 at random intervals. I first noticed it on my statements in February, and it has since sent 7 more.

I am being charged 25p for each of these texts (none of which I have sent) despite having unlimited texts on my plan

Can anyone help?

Thanks

[Jebelious]

If this is only related to the M8 then it would be beneficial to understand what applications people have installed, i have not come across this on my device and i use Hangouts as my SMS/MMS tool and I am often in it so if those messages ever appeared i would see them.

TO help VF out list every application that you have on your device regardless of if it came with the phone and post the exact number the application is sending SMS too (its a start i think). Doing a google search shows this number appears on other websites but no one has yet been able to pinpoint what is making it happen.

[Jebelious]

To start this off - I do not have this issue with the HTC One M8 - Fully updated

App List:

All Standard applications all up to date

4OD

iPlayer

Netflix

Now tv

BBC Media player

Tunrin Radio

Twitter

Facebook

Hangouts

Bejewled Blitz

Candy Crush

Chrono Trigger

SWTOR Key

Battle.net Mobile 

Solitare

Blowtorch (telnet app)

Google Goggles

FLashlight

3g watchdog

Airdroid

An TU TU Benchmark

BBC News

cinime

Dropbox

Onedrive

Astro File Manager

Drive

Skyscanner

Flixster

Gumtree

Hola 

IMDB

Lloyds

Nectar

Onenote

Play To Lite

Rightmove

Skype

Speed test

Steam

Travelzoo

Tripadvisor

Twitch

Vue

TV ANywhere

XDA Free

Starbucks

2048

Instagram

Linkedin

Audible

iPlayer radio

Google keyboard

Five Guys

QUidco

Spotify

Vouchercloud

[janeleckebusch]

Thank you so much for your help.....

Neither of the mobiles I've had ths probem on is an HTC, but the person who started the thread had exactly the same problem.

The first phone I had the problm with was a Sony Xpera L.  After that was stolen I got a Motorola XT 1032 (Moto G).

I have now switched to Hangouts for MSS rather than Messaging, though I don't think it is actually possible to uninstall it altogether.  Woth  go though......

There are a huge number of Apps on this mobile, most of which it came with:  The majority of these are not running, and I don't know what a lot of them are.  Here goes anyway:

Accuweather

Amazon

Android Keyboad

Android live wallpaper

Android system

Antivirus Free
Assist

Audio effects
Basic Daydreams
BBC News

Bluetooth Share
Browser Message
Bubbles

Calculator
Calendar
Calendar Storage

Camera

Certificate installer

Chrome

Clock

Cloud Print

com.android.backupconfirm

com.android.browser.provider

com.android.providers.partnerbookmarks

com.android.qualcomm.qcom_qmi

com.android.wallpaper.holospiral

com.android.wallpapercropper

com.motorola.authentication

com.motorola.bug2go

com.motorola.digitalpersonalisation

com.motorola.emaraphoneextns

com.motorola.motgeofencesvc

com.qualcomm.atfwd

com.qualcomm.qualcommsettings

com.qualcomm.timeservice

ConfigUpdater

Contacts
Contacts storage
CQATest
Demo mode
Device management

DiagMdlog Settings

Dialler

DMService

Documents
Download Manager
Downloads

Drive
Dropbox

Earth
eBay
Email

Emergency alerts
Eschange Services

Expedia

External Storage
Face Unlock
Facebook
FastConnect
FM Radio
FMRadioService

Fused Location
Gallery

Gmail
Google Account Manager
Google Backup Transport
Google Calendar Sync
Google One Time Init

Google Partner Set Up

Google Play Books

Google Play Games

Google Play Movies & TV

Google Play Music
Google Play Newsstand
Google Play services

Google Play Store

Google Search

Google Services Framework

Google Text-to-speech engine

Google+

Hangouts

Help

Holy Bible (NIV)

HP Print Service Plugin

HTML Viewer

Input devices

Job Search

Key Chain

Keyguard TestActivity

KK Music

Launcher

Live wallpaper picker

Location Services 120kb

Location Services 138kb

London

Magig smoke wallpaper

MapMyRun

Maps

Market Feedback Agent
McAffee Security

Media storage

Messaging

Messenger

Met Office

ModemStatsService

MotoCare

MotoCareInt

Motorola Assist framework

Motorola Boot Services

Motorola Checkin

Motorola Contextual Services

Motorola DriveActivator

Motorola ID

Motorola migrate

Motorola notification
Motorola One Time Init

Motorola Services

Motorola Services Main

MotorolaOTA

Music visualisation wallpaper

MyVodafone

NativeDropBoxAgent

OMA client provisioning

OneCast

org.codeaurora.bluetooth

Package Access Helper

Package installer

PacProcessor

PGM system

Phase beam

Phone

Phone/messaging store

Photo Screensavers

Picasa Uploader

Preset

Print Spooler

Programming menu

ProxyHandler

Quickoffice

Rescue Add-On: Motorola

Ringtone Maker

Sense V2 flip clock

Settings

Settings storage (360kb)

Settings(276kb)

Setup

Setup Wizard

Shell

Sound recorder

Street View

System UI

Tags

TalkBack

Translate

Trusted devices

Twitter

User dictionary

Vodafone

VpnDialogs

WeatherWidget

Youtube

[Retired-Simon]

Hi jabeleckebusch

Thanks for the list.

A couple caught my eye here and they’re not available on the Google Play Store as far as I can see:

Basic Daydreams and Fused Location  

Unless they’re a theme or live wallpaper of some sort, I’d suggest uninstalling these.

The others look fairly standard.

Thanks

Simon

[janeleckebusch]

Hi Simon!

Thanks for your help. I'm not sure what either of those Apps are. They both came preinstalled. I'm also not sure whether it is possible to uninstall them. There is not any option to in the App settings, it only gives the choice to force stop or disable. What would you suggest?

Thanks.

Jake

[Gemma]

Hi Jake,

It looks like it may be one of the apps causing this.

You could test going to the settings menu, application manager, click each one and in the permissions disable the send and receive SMS option.

Thanks,

Gemma

[janeleckebusch]

Thanks Gemma. Neither of the Apps Simon mentioned above give me an option to disable send and receive SMS, just to disable the App itself. When I tried to do this it warned me not to as it was preinstalled and might stop other Apps running properly if I disabled it.
Not sure what to do......

[Retired-Matt_B]

Hi janeleckebusch,

You can't actually stop the permissions, when the apps are installed you accept the permission list and they're then installed.

As I mentioned above, I had a look at your applications list and the only apps listed that have permission to send text messages were the two anti-virus applications.

I'd recommend factory restoring your phone and then keeping an eye on the permissions lists. You'll see them pop-up when you install applications, check for any which say they have permission to send SMS and avoid installing them.

Thanks,

Matt B

[janeleckebusch]

OK: thanks Matt B.
Somehow missed your first message above:sorry.
Apologies too if it is a dumb question, but how do I actually go about factory restoring the phone? And what would you suggest about antivirus: do you know good antivirus which doesn't require permission to send texts?
Thanks!

[janeleckebusch]

Ok, my daughter has just shown me how to do factory restore.
Thanks