Problem with incoming txt msgs on my phone

[#1]

I have 75 txt msgs in my phone In Tray. Every msg that had arrived before 19 March have been replaced by the same gobbledegook msg. There is one exception. Each message has been given a number 1 to 75. Each corrupted msg has the same header (what you see when you want to see what msgs you have received) show the same first few words of a message to me from a family member, but then shows something that starts "fs:/mod/unbapp......". I've deliberately cut that bit short in case it is the cause of the problem, but hopefully you can see enough to give you a clue as to what is going on. If I try to read msg number 1, it just shows a number in the form "xx.xx". If I try to read the corrupted msgs numbered 2 onwards, it says "Invalid MMSI".

I could just delete all the corrupted msgs, but some of them were important so I would like to recover them if possible. Is that possible? Was the problem caused at my phone service supplier 3? I'm not complaining about 3, its just that I need to know if I need to contact them about it. Like every other business they are short staffed because of coronavirus, so I will only contact them if I have to.

Any suggestions please.

Take care. Stay safe

[#2]

@penneck  - Sounds like you've been 'got at' to me but I could be wrong. I assume turning the phone off for a while does nothing, or have you tried this? Do you have AV installed on the phone? Are you able to run this? If not it might be worth while trying to install one from a reputable vendor. Even better would be the ability to do a scan on the phone from your PC using its data cable.

Edit: A thought has just popped in to my head @penneck, maybe the messages you're looking at are in an archive format, might be worthwhile checking your settings. Also, get someone to send you a message to see what happens to it and you can read it.

[#3]

Hello @Mook .

Yes I thought I had been got at too, and turning off and on (I even removed the battery) didn't have any effect.

I have Malwarebytes Free on my pc, and a cable to connect to my phone. I am running Malwarebytes now, so we will see what happens

Thanks

take care

[#4]

Hello @Mook .

Malwarebytes didn't find anything, but how do I know if it checked the phone or not?

[#5]

Ah! Well there's the rub. Chances are if it checked anything it only checked the user data areas and not the OS of the phone where I think any 'bad code' would reside. Have you got someone to send you a new text yet to test what happens? This would be my next step. Are you able to view these messages using the Phone's PC Application? If so, maybe you should download them and reset the phone subject to a new message test of course.

[#6]

@Mook 

Have just sent 3 different test messages to the phone. It received them all without corrupting them, but put them down in positions 68, 69 and 70 in my list of msgs, and shunted all the msgs that had been in those positions (and the following numbers) down 3 places (ie msgs 68-75 became 71-78). Sorry - its not that I think you're an idiot, its just sometimes I'm not sure my more basic explanation is clear. The corrupted msgs are all taking positions 1-67 and not being moved by new msgs.

I'm beginning to think all I can do is delete those corrupted msgs.

Incidentally, none of the msgs in the Sent tray have been corrupted.

Regards. Take care

[#7]

You're not just running out of space are you? I was thinking that this numbering may have been the result of malware so that the messages could be recovered in the event of payment!

[#8]

@Mook 

I don't know about lack or otherwise of space, and there is no sign of any 'request' for payment.

I'm giving up on this problem and am going to delete all of these corrupted msgs. I tried contacting 3 (my phone people) via their website, but it looks like only the sales people are working at the moment.

Let's call it a day on this problem

Thanks very much for your help