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stopping text scammers

hi,
as a victim of lost or stolen phone being used to sign up to premium rate text service, which can not be blocked according to phone companies I was wondering two things.
1. the ****tard signed up online using my name and number - that is all, and then confirmed the sign up by just returning a text from my phone. Is there anyway to trace the computer and thus the user who stole my phone and signed up. Any techies here who fancy the challenge - and give hackers a good name for a change? I'm thinking trace to a internet cafe computer and then ask cafe for CCTV...... like that case where the barrister was caught.
2. I think that a sign up to any such services should require security at least at the level that one has to use when speaking to your phone company.... ie providing a password of the account, etc. Returning a text is no confirmation at all - as it can all too easily be in the hands of a crook. It is in fact an open wallet, one that can hold hundreds or thousands to lose over a matter of hours. The regulator, phone companies and police are all, "it's not fair" but apply for a refund........(which is proving hard to even get through to the company of course)
I was relatively lucky, as at £260 at least it's the low end of fraud, but it makes me very angry that genuine innovative technology is poorly implemented and leaves open such obvious flaws for sharks to so easily take advantage.
Any suggestions.
Regards

anyone got a view on this?

so is no one interested in letting me know or suggesting a good protocol / technical mechanism that the industry could use to make it necessary for a handset to start using a texting service it must go through a security check with the phone provider....... such as PIN with phone provider, to prevent thieves from setting up via the web and then getting handset going stealing 1000's out of one's account.
The phone company operators are saying they can't do that?
Anyone give me some ammunition to say 'yes you could'?
Please anyone.

Q re best Local Number Portability options to hold onto old landline number

XDA Smart Folks! I need crowd-source thinking on this. It's something that affects many many people, and will continue to for years to come. I've searched online high and low for answers to this, analyzed all sorts of potential scenarios for one simple purpose: cutting my landline service but holding keeping that phone number in my possession (maybe a year) until I decide where to go with it.
Here's my phone "ecosystem" right now:
(1) Landline home service which also carries my DSL service. I want to cut this service but find cheapest way to keep the number, to use to call forward to wherever I choose.
(2) I no longer need a landline phone, huge waste of money, and DSL can now be delivered via "dry loop"... whereby DSL provider supplies the phone line to you, using local phone company lines, routed to you strictly as data, which you have no responsibility for. The "dry loop" phone line is built into their monthly DSL price, but it is not in any way a phone # I access or use.
(3) T-mobile cell voice + unlimited internet/data plan for past 5 years, with HTC touchscreen phone, and a phone number I like.
(4) Several SKYPE-IN phone #s local to me
(5) and now a Google Voice # local to me.
(6) A Skype-to-go # I use just for calling international #s via a phone, vs via skype app on a computer. (You call your own Skype-to-go #, using any phone, cell or landline anywhere, then press speed-dials to connect to international land or mobile phones)
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MY PREFERRED SOLUTIONS, but not yet available, if at all:
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1. Port my about-to-be-disconnected landline # to replace my Google Voice #. This recent article from TechCrunch shows that it IS possible, just not yet available for "rank & file" GV users.
How I Learned To Quit The iPhone And Love Google Voice
Want to port your mobile number to Google Voice.... and do what I've done? Google Voice's Secret Weapon: Number Portability
It's an interesting quandary that, in order to port your number you need to ...Google Voice About to Get More Amazing By Letting You Port Your ...
Jun 14, 2009 ... That means you'll be able to port the phone numberGoogle Voice and use whatever phone you want, ... you've had for 5 or 10 or 100 years to Arrington Gets To Port Into Google Voice, When Do The Rest Of Us ...
Aug 10, 2009 ... Well, yesterday I read that Michael Arrington (a new adopter to Google Voice) of Techcrunch was able to port his numberGoogle Voice ... into
2. Port to my Skype-In # ... (Not a chance. Won't happen due to USA FCC rules)
3. Possibly add a 2nd line to my existing T-mo account, with a free no-feature phone, and use it just to forward calls to wherever I choose. Perhaps in a year Google Voice will have Number Portability by then. Downside: too costly
4. NOT cut off my local landline service, but convert it to a fax/data line, and, if possible, set up voice call-forwarding to whatever phone I actually want to ring when people dial my long-time #. Problem: I really despise my local provider for its domestic spying on all US citizens every phone call and web site in cooperation with Bush Administrations blatant disregard for laws. This is the primary reason I want to cut that tie completely -- an economic statement of principle.
5. Get a cheap pre-pay cell-phone plan that i use for no other reason than to preserve my # and use to call forward. But I don't know if consumers can port a number to a pre-paid plan in USA. Can they?
6. Use a "phone number parking service". I didn't know these existed til tonight. Like domain-name parking. But it's specifically for people in my shoes. You port your # to them, they forward your calls wherever you want, $10/month. Like here, and here.
7. Establish T-Mobile @ Home local service -- but I don't know if this sets you up with a separate phone # besides your cell line; I'm assuming no.
8. And finally: Let go of my current T-Mobile cell #, and just port my landline # to my cell account. The downside here is that it is an established contact #, I like it, and porting my landline # to it eliminates it.
What sayeth XDA-dev members?

UPDATE 1: NUMBER PORTABILITY - Ways to hold onto a number in between services
I've done some ruleouts since yesterday, which reduce the options:
• Port to my Skype-In # ... Eliminated. Not possible, per Skype support email.
• Possibly add 2nd line to my existing T-mo account, : Will cost me $20/month additional, by using a Family Plan additional one line. Not a good value at all. The price threshold to meet or beat is $10/month for actual phone service; or $5/month to "park your number"
5. Get a cheap pre-pay cell-phone plan (for example Tracfone or Virgin Mobile) that i use for no other reason than to preserve my # and use to call forward. But I don't know if consumers can port a number to a pre-paid plan in USA. Can they?
6. Use a "phone number parking service". This seems like the way to go -- unless T-Mobile wakes up with item 7 below. I didn't know these existed til tonight. Like domain-name parking. But it's specifically for people in my shoes. You port your # to them, they forward your calls wherever you want, $10/month. Like here, and here.
7. Establish T-Mobile @ Home local service -- ANSWERS: Yes, I can port my old landline # to a new T-Mobile @ Home VOIP account. HOWEVER, A REALLY STUPID PROBLEM -- T-MOBILE WON'T LET YOU PAY THEM an additional $10/month for this service, in some cases:
LISTEN UP T-MOBILE, or get hurt by stupidity: T-Mobile will not let customers sign up for this service -- and pay T-Mobile an additional revenue of $10/month -- unless the customer has a voice plan of $39.99 or over. I use my cell more for data than talk, so I have the $29.99 voice plan -- and so T-Mobile says "No, we will not take your money and make from you an additional $120/year in revenue, because you don't qualify to pay us $10/month." ... Nevermind that I have an additional Text messaging plan, and on top of that a "Total Internet and Unlimited Hotspot" data plan -- adding another $40/month I pay to them. Pure beancounter mentality vs Total Customer Relationship business mentality.
(10-1-09) Right now I have a call-back due from T-Mobile's CUSTOMER RETENTION department to let me know if they will let me pay them an additional $10/month to get the @Home VOIP phone service... If they don't, I may pack up my whole account with them and switch to Sprint or AT&T, simply due to beancounter insulting stupidity. Stay tuned for the answer.
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[Forward]WhosCall let you prevent phone fraud

******** WhosCall commitment to free forever ********
From Taiwan app development team, has recently been named Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said very useful .It has globally downloads of nearly one million, how do they make it?
When the phone rings, the first action should be able to see the phone screen to check is where the phone call, and then decide not to pick up, but if the screen show is a bunch of strange phone number, then there will be a doubt, who called me? The company I met yesterday? Or last night I got drunk and left the phone to an hottie? Maybe finnaly is prepaid card telephone fraud. If we can pick up the phone before knowing who it is, you can quickly judge whether pick the phone, or prevent the embarrassing situation that pick up but not know who this is. The software is to search the data of strange phone calls at the same time, as well as block the call which you do not want to take , you can also sync the blacklist of telephone fraud, and reduce the chance of harassment.
The software can be the most important received unknown calls , deliver the speaker information and effectively to identify the business, fraud, marketing, business and other unknown caller, and through the block phone share so that more people can download the list of recommendations blockade. Let's hand with anti-fraud!
About this app:
Language: Chinese, English
*Because of UI restrictics only Android version, and in the future we plans to launch iOS version, please give us any suggestions let us making better.

[Q] google voice alternative

moderators, if there is a better place to put this, please move accordingly.
situation:
my employer will pickup $95 of my cellphone bill if i get a smartphone for work - so that i can check emails while traveling to job sites, meetings, etc. i travel about once every other week now. they will put me on the company account when i am traveling every week. so this might only be a 2 year stop-gap till they are paying for all of my phone and this isnt an issue at all. at that point, i can port my GV number to ATT and the company account.
i currently have a dumb or "feature phone" and cant justify spending the monthly data rate to get a smart phone for personal usage, but if my business pick-ups most of the tab, it is worth it. personally, i make less than 200 minutes of calls and 200 texts (mostly to my wife who is on the same plan, that is all negated as part of the "shared"
if i stay on my current family's plan and convert it to a family data share plan (ATT), that actually saves me about $15 a month on my phone bill
downside - i have an out of area phone number and my office wants me to have an in-area phone number for business
in short, what is the best, long term way to have 2 numbers call/receive on a cellphone, without having to pay extra, or minimal, for the convenience of being able to call from the different numbers. if the telecom carriers would just drop their stupid tax limitation for having different tax / area codes on the same account, i wouldn't have this issue. realistically - if everyone in the USA had free nation wide calling via cellphone, land-line, etc - we would all just have 10 digit numbers and this wouldn't be a problem b/c we wouldn't need all of these hacks and tweaks for porting numbers, move voice over sip/voip, use 3rd party programs that use txt over data rather than it just all being easy and cheap / rant over.
GV number
it appears i am receive / call from an in-area number - i already setup a number and tried a iphone and it works great.
not concerned that it uses minutes b/c family share plan has unlimited minutes (i keep searching for google voice alternatives and i either come up with VoIP / SIP options to avoid using minutes and use data OR business plans that use voice, but charge for minutes)
my concerns / reason for looking for other options / alternatives
1. every year google says that US calling is free for the next year. and their rates page shows the same.
since i will be using default GV iphone/android app that will use minutes rather than VoIP to make the calls, will that ever be a concern of mine (e.g. if google makes a call $0.01 a minute in the future, i don't want to have to find another option really quick b/c it does not suite my needs anymore)
2. GV closing - everyone was "up-in-arms" about reader closing this year. most of us have moved to other programs / clients that allow us to continue reading news
3. GV says that you shouldnt use it for business b/c they don't have enterprise support. the company i work for is far from an enterprise, but i still have some an uneasy feeling that if google doesn't like GV anymore and drop it, im scrambling to find something fast and dont want to do that. e.g. is this the best long term solution?
option 2: long time listener to leo laporte / twit and they are advertising ring central.
looked at their features and not only will it cost more than i am saving, but also, it has tons more features that what i need.
other options? someone on the GV forums called GV a "call management service" and i have searched for alternatives and most of the business oriented services seem to want to offer more features than i need and to change for it. most of the personal alternatives are an attempt to reduce voice minutes, but use data.
a lot of our contractor clients have project managers and job-site supers have completely random area codes and call from other named business's when they call us, so it might not even be an issue. trying to do all my research before i go back to my boss and give him some options and see if having an in-area number is required or just something that they would want.
thanks for the help and advise.

Android App that forwards and logs calls?

I need an app for Android phones that will forward calls and keep a log of how many calls were forwarded. I'm not sure if this exists or if I need to create it but here is an explanation of what I'm trying to do.
I run a marketing business and my clients need to know which channels are driving business. So what I have in mind is to use different phone numbers for online ads vs newspaper vs billboards etc... This would be straightforward in the US, there are services that issue virtual tracking numbers. But where I am, these services don't exist so I have to find a workaround.
So like I mentioned before, my plan is to get a few different mobile phone numbers, and forward each number to the main business line. But I need a way to track how many calls each mobile phone is forwarding.
If you know of an app that would help or have another approach I should consider, please share it.
Thanks in advance...

Anyone have ANY ideas on this?
ichiban876 said:
I need an app for Android phones that will forward calls and keep a log of how many calls were forwarded. I'm not sure if this exists or if I need to create it but here is an explanation of what I'm trying to do.
I run a marketing business and my clients need to know which channels are driving business. So what I have in mind is to use different phone numbers for online ads vs newspaper vs billboards etc... This would be straightforward in the US, there are services that issue virtual tracking numbers. But where I am, these services don't exist so I have to find a workaround.
So like I mentioned before, my plan is to get a few different mobile phone numbers, and forward each number to the main business line. But I need a way to track how many calls each mobile phone is forwarding.
If you know of an app that would help or have another approach I should consider, please share it.
Thanks in advance...
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