I am not doubting it's possible, I am merely, off the top of my head, trying to figure how it would work...
A sends B a text message
C, for some nefarious reason, wishes to intercept text conversations between A and B.
C needs information from A's and B's cellphones in order to intercept (Now, I am not sure what it would be beyond the phone number, so, lets just assume there is more, perhaps someone versed in how it works can clue us in) C, I would imagine, also might need at least two phones, or failing that a method of intercepting the messages using his computer. I have seen it done with pager data transmissions, so I am assuming that it can be done, in some way, with cell phone data transmissions. In addition he needs to intercept that transmission, prevent it from going to the recipient so he can edit it, and resend it. That, I would imagine, would take someone with more than just rudimentary knowledge of cell phone data transmissions. Once C has all of this in place, he is now able to intercept, and edit messages sent between A and B.
Again, not doubting that in can be done... I am sure it can. Like I said, I have seen it done with text pager transmissions (the interception part, anyway) it just looks labor intensive, that's all. Also, now that I am thinking about it, if someone wants to block a transmission, I am sure they have to know what tower the A and B's phones are using (assuming there is only one, there could be more than one) and then be able to hack into the "control terminal"(for lack of a better term) that controls the message queue for that tower (if there even is such a thing) . I am fairly certain that there is a computer of some sort that controls the tower's transmission activity and it orders the messages that it receives and transmits them to the appropriate phone users.
Now, I could be way off here, but I like being analytical. I do know that any radio signal be it voice, or data can be interecepted with the right equipment, question is, what is the right equipment. Is it something involved, requiring a serious monetary investment, or is it something that can be cobbled together by a knowledgeable person?
It just seems that a person that wants to intercept this kind of information would need to know, at the very least, the phone numbers of the phones he wishes to intercept from, and the other, necessary ID information from each phone. And then, has to have the necessary interception equipment... That I know can be done, the problem is, how does one intercept, stop, and then retransmit an edited message? Someone who wishes to do that, must have personal reasons for wanting to disrupt messages in that manner, in order to cause a problem. Of course, I know there are people out there who would mess with others just to get their jollies, so, I guess either scenario is possible.
What does everyone else think? Specifically, what kind of equipment would be involved??? Also, how far off am I on my assumptions? Feel free to clarify, or correct anything in my above statements..
Edited to add: I googled "text message interception" and I came up with a bunch of articles, and to be quite honest, it doesn't look that difficult, or expensive. However, I found nothing (so far) about intercepting, stopping, and editing, and resending a message. ......
