Threatening message not from TSTT server

THE threatening text message that went out to thousands of post-paid mobile phone users between Saturday night and Sunday morning did not originate from the Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (TSTT) server.

Stephen Sheppard, TSTT’s Vice President Customer Relationship Man-agement said this yesterday while updating the situation which left several people traumatised. The strange text message which was circulated read: “Aissa handle your REAL business before you lose your daughter...that is if you still care.” Sheppard said while the message did not originate from its server, it does not mean that it was not a TSTT customer who committed the act. Sheppard said a TSTT customer could have gone onto another website in any part of the world to send the threatening text message. He also dismissed any suggestions that the message might have come from employees within their Internet area. Sheppard said no one was on duty in the Internet area at the time, and in any event, he said, not many people work in the Internet area.

TSTT is working along with the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service to find the source of the text message which went out to over 40,000 post-paid users. The telephone company stated that it has been able to identify that the text message came via the Internet and has since shut down the Internet server that is being used to send text messages. This, according to TSTT, means that customers who send text messages from a computer to a mobile telephone will not be able to do so. However, customers can still send SMS text messages from mobile phone to mobile phone. The matter was discussed at length during yesterday’s police executive meeting, headed by Acting Commis-sioner of Police, Everald Snaggs. Sources said police do not believe that the threatening message was an external one, but a local one, and that the matter will be thoroughly investigated.

Sources also said that the police investigations will not be an easy one and that they will need people with technical knowledge to assist them. Sheppard told Newsday that several post-paid number ranges were affected, including codes 680, 620, 682, 684, 678 and 685. Sheppard said each number range has a possible 10,000 numbers, but he said not everyone may have received the text message for several reasons. Newsday was reliably informed that some of the affected customers were High Court Judge Allan Mendonca, attorney Guy Hannays and acting Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime/Operations) Glen Roach. “It was a bit unsettling at first, but it could not have been related to me because I knew where my daughter was,” Hannays said. Sheppard continued that the person or persons responsible for the text message do not necessarily have to know an individual’s mobile number.  He said the technology exists to do something of that nature, and that it could have been sent from any part of the world.