The ability to trace text messages has been around for quite some time. The source of a text message is a cell phone number. If you or someone you know is receiving text messages from an unknown source, you do have options to identify the ‘texter’.
Here are some incremental approaches you can take to trace text messages:
1) Text back the person who is sending the messages. Ask them to identify themselves. Of course, they are under no obligation to reply, but it’s worth a try. Perhaps they don’t know that you are unaware of their identity.
2) Call the phone number that is sending the text messages. Even if they don’t answer the phone, chances are they have a voicemail message that you might be able to use to identify the owner. Even knowing the sound of the voice and hopefully the first name of the caller might do the trick in the identification of the cell phone.
3) Use one of the major search engines like yahoo, google or msn and type in the phone number.
Perhaps the owner of the phone will have posted their number on a web page such as a forum or classified ad listing.
As a last resort in tracing a text message and locating the owner of a cell phone you can try a paid online service. Yes – these services do charge a fee – but the fee is generally not as expensive as it would be to hire a private detective. If you do elect to use a paid service, make sure that you work with one that has a good reputation. Be very careful of services that claim to offer you the ability to trace text messages for free. These services will only provide you with ‘free’ information up until the point that they tease you that they have the information in their database.