Strange, troubling text messages mysteriously delivered to America’s mobile phones
Unexplained texts appeared to have come from Valentine's Day
Your support helps us to tell the story
As your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.
Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn't have the resources to challenge those in power.
Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November election
Andrew Feinberg
White House Correspondent
Much of America has received strange, unexplained messages – many of which are awkward or even troubling in their content.
The texts appear to have arrived as a result of a technical issue that meant that a flurry of text messages, originally sent in the spring, arrived in recent hours.
The problem could have affected tens of thousands of people, according to one software company.
It meant that people were left fearful by cryptic messages or forced into contact with people they would have preferred not to speak to.
What's more, there was no way of knowing that the texts had been delayed, rather than newly sent. It is still not clear how the texts arrived.
Phone companies have blamed each other and offered no further explanations.
Stephanie Bovee, a 28-year-old from Portland, Oregon, woke up at 5am to a text from her sister that said just "omg". She immediately thought something had happened to her newborn nephew at the hospital.
She started calling everyone. Her sister and her sister's husband did not answer. She then woke up her mother. It was three hours before she learned that everything was fine and the text was an odd anomaly.
"Now it's funny," she said. "But out of context, it was not cool."
Ms Bovee discovered that people were getting some of her old texts that failed to go through when her sister and a co-worker both got texts that she had sent in February.
The text her sister received wished her a happy Valentine's Day.
Mobile carriers offered unhelpful explanations for the weird-text phenomenon, which appeared to be widespread, at least according to social media.
A Sprint spokeswoman said it resulted from a "maintenance update" for messaging platforms at multiple US carriers and would not explain further.
T-Mobile called it a "third party vendor issue".
Verizon and AT&T did not answer questions.
Additional reporting by agencies
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments