Is It Possible to Trace Text Messages to a Cellphone Originating From Yahoo Messenger?
When you send an SMS text message to someone's phone from Yahoo Messenger, your Yahoo display name shows in the text message, and the message recipient is able to reply to you via SMS. It isn't possible for the recipient to trace any additional information about you, such as your phone number or Yahoo email address, unless you give it to him in an SMS reply.
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How Yahoo SMS Works
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Yahoo Messenger allows you to send SMS text messages to phone numbers in several countries around the world, including the United States, Thailand and Pakistan. To send an SMS text message, you add the phone number to which you want to send the message to your Yahoo buddy list as if you were adding someone's Yahoo screen name. All messages you send to this phone number in Yahoo are sent as SMS text messages.
Information Within the SMS
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When the recipient receives the SMS text message on his mobile phone, the only information he has about your identity, barring anything you personally tell him, is the display name you have set within Yahoo Messenger. Note that this is the same as your Yahoo Messenger screen name if you have not set it to something else since you signed up. In this way, sending an SMS text message to someone from Yahoo Messenger has the potential to be anonymous.
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Replying to SMS
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The only means a recipient of your text message has of replying to you is via text message, which sends a message back to the Yahoo screen name you used to send the text. Although the recipient is thus able to communicate directly with the Yahoo screen name, he isn't able to see any other information about you.
Yahoo Terms of Service
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You shouldn't use SMS messages from Yahoo Messenger as a means of harassing someone, even though they aren't able to easily and directly identify you. Using Yahoo Messenger for these purposes violates its terms of service and if the person contacts Yahoo to inquire about the message, Yahoo may investigate and determine that it was you who sent the message, resulting in penalties to your account, including its possible termination.
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