tracing text message location

[chillyogawine]

Hello any mobile phone/IT experts out there. I got one anonymous text but want to know who sent it and the phone is now switched off and they didn't answer my text saying who is this? I was told there is software you can download to your phone or computer that can track the exact location (house no/street, person name) of where an SMS text came from. I tried looking this up but can't find anything? How do i track where the text was sent from knowing only the mobile phone number and network provider.

You generally cannot do this with SMS.

Even police and detectives struggle to trace SMS locations, as you need to find which phone mast is was received through etc.

The only way you can trace them is if they sent it over an internet/social media app and have their location settings on.

You generally can't trace SMS text messaging without a very good reason as it would need to be done by professionals

So if I know phone mast I could? Or vkyjd ask the other person service provider to tell me where text came from?

Reddress89 The phone is switched off now and might be a pay as you go rather than contract. Is contract phone easier to trace or no difference?

Sounds a bit stalkerish of you to be fair....

Try googling the number and seeing if it's listed to anyone. In any case, unless the content of the text is important/ relevant just let it go

Text messages don't hold location details in them. As pp said, authorities can sometimes trace the mast nearest where it was sent but it is very difficult.
And in any case, unless the person was sat at home it wouldn't help you to discover them. I could drive 1000 miles away and send text so even if you found the location of where my phone was when it was used, it wouldn't tell you who sender was.
Software available is only useful if it's on device before messages sent, not after.
In any case, isn't tapping in many cases illegal?

they're easier to trace on a contract because their name and address will be registered to their phone, but you cannot get any information from Network providers about someone else's contract as it breaches data protection. Again, the only way you could do this would be through the authorities.

Try pasting the number into the Facebook search bar.

Or adding it to your contacts and then checking WhatsApp. Sometimes you can see a name and picture.