For my story, I was wondering if it's technologically possible for a person to send text messages from a cell phone, but make the person he is sending them to, believe that it's coming from someone else's phone, to trick him. I am assuming that is possible but I do not know how it could be done, when explaining it to the reader. Does anyone know how to fool someone into thinking it's coming from their friend's phone, instead of their enemy's?
It's absolutely possible! It's called "spoofing" and it's entirely legal. You can find a bunch of information online, as well as a huge list of programs to help you do it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID_spoofing
Okay thanks. Well after reading the article, if 'spoofing' is possible, perhaps it's not the best plot idea. The villain might not fall for someone else texting him, if it can be done so easily. He will probably want a voice confirmation cause if spoofing is that easy, then the villain might look too stupid, if he falls for such an easy trick then.
It is incredibly common. There are around 200,000 cases of phone fraud a day in the US, most of them perpetrated with a spoofed caller ID.
Well the villain probably wouldn't fall it for such a trick then, if it's common. Like if the villain is careful enough to not get caught for a whole story, but then is able to be fooled by a common trick, it will probably make him look stupid, and inconsistent with his previous intelligence then.
Maybe? The thing is that the spoofed caller ID can be anyone. So if he had a number in his contact list, it would just show up as that contact calling him. When I was working fraud at Verizon we'd get calls from people saying, "My mom called me, but it was someone I didn't know on the line!" Or more frequently, "It says I got a call from my own number!"
It's pretty common with the dozens of spam calls I get every week. But the only spam text I've gotten was from the stupid phone company.