TSTT probes ‘strange’ text message

THOUSANDS of people  were jolted out of their beds, chairs, cars and even police roadblocks when they were greeted by a strange text message on their mobile phones Saturday night and early yesterday morning. The strange text message read: “Aissa handle your REAL business before you lose your daughter...that is if you still care.” Up to last night, the Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) could not trace the source of the text message. However, the telephone company stated that they have 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 is being addressed at the highest level of the Police Service, which received reports from thousands of terrified customers. TSTT’s Vice President Customer Relationship Manager, Stephen Shep-pard has since assured that the organisation will find the source of the problem, which they deemed in a release as a “hoax.” Speaking in a telephone interview, Sheppard told Newsday that the company will be able to find the source through the Internet Protocol (IP) adjust, and referred to the person or persons responsible for the strange text message as “very intelligent pranksters.” Sheppard could not say to whom the message was intended, but one woman, Alisa King, of Maraval, told Newsday she believes the text message might have been meant for her.

“They probably missed out the “L” in my name. I believe there is some kind of connection,” Alisa King said. Her 16-year-old daughter, Rachel, went missing last Tuesday, after an argument at their home. The child, a Fifth Form student of the Bishop’s High School showed up at her Monticello Drive, Le Platte, home sometime yesterday. The girl and her mother were interviewed by officers of the Maraval Police Station, and police sources said there was “a lot of misinformation” regarding the initial missing person report. The text message started infiltrating people’s mobile phones just after 8 pm Saturday and those who did not get it then, woke up yesterday with the beeping sound indicating that a text message had been received. The exact number of people that received the text message could not be clearly ascertained up to late evening.  However, Sheppard said approximately 40,000 people actually got the message and the same amount was waiting in the server to be sent out, but were subsequently stopped. Sheppard told Newsday that several postpaid number ranges were affected, including codes such as 680, 620, 682, and some 684.