SMS From Unregistered SIM [Archive]

Hyp3rion

February 7th, 2008, 08:14

I hope someone can help.
A friend of mine died recently and his widow has asked for my help in retrieving some very personal text messages she had from him. These were all received on a PAYG sim and she has recently had the number from that sim moved to a contract phone. The guy in the shop told her that she should still be able to view the texts on the PAYG sim but as this is now unregistered this is not the case. Is there anyway in which text messages can be retreived form a sim that has had the number transfered to another sim?
Thanks

Alex Railean

February 7th, 2008, 08:29

Even though the number was transferred from card A to card B, the SMS archive still resides on the original card. It means that all the messages that were sent/received while the number was assigned to card A are stored on card A. After the number was transferred to card B, the new SMSes went to that card (the old ones are intact on card A).

The guy in the shop was right, but it is strange that the SMSes cannot be read. Are you sure they were not deleted?

What happens when you plug that card into a phone? (i.e. explain in detail what you mean by "but as this is now unregistered this is not the case")
(a) you go to the SMS Inbox and it is empty;
(b) you cannot go to the SMS Inbox at all.

If it is (a), the messages were deleted. If it is (b), then probably the phone is designed in a way that prevents you from doing anything with a card if it fails to connect to the operator's network with that card. In this case I would simply try the card in another phone (which allows me to navigate the card's contents even if it cannot register on the network). Note that I have never seen phones that would prevent me from exploring an unregistered card, but I do not exclude the possibility that such phones exist.

Alternatively, you can try reading the contents of the SIM with a card reader, such as this one (http://www.dekart.com/store/special_offers/sim_man2/). It will access the SIM card directly, so any problems caused by the fact that the card is not registered anymore will be avoided.

There is another possibility - the messages are not stored on the SIM, but in the phone's memory (most modern phones do that). You should instead examine the phone of your deceased friend. I must also point out that many phones that use their own memory to store data will 'forget' everything if the battery is unplugged, or if it is completely discharged. Therefore be very careful, because there is a chance that your actions can have ireversible consequences.

Finally, each sent SMS involves two people, the sender and the recipient. What is in someone's "outbox" also exists in the other person's "inbox". In other words, you can find those messages on the phone of the recipient as well.