Reoccurring Automatic Outgoing Text Messages to "7723" - Resolved!

[PMFanatic]

I managed to fix this concerning issue on my device, so I hope this article helps others in a similar situation. This only really impacts you if you are on the $10 plan which has a limit of 50 outgoing Text Messages per month...

Quick Background and Problem Description
On the same day I activated my new phone I noticed on my Account Overview there were 21/50 text messages reportedly sent. This was very concerning as I didn't send any text messages explicitly and my limit was depleting fast!

After investigating my Usage History on the self serve website, I discovered multiple text messages reported as sent to a Destination # of "7723" and a Usage Type of "Minutes" as shown directly below:

I searched in the PublicMobile Community and discovered that on some devices, the "Phone" app on your device will automatically ping a text message to 7723 upon a device restart. And as my device was brand new, it was indeed restarting often while I was applying all the firmware upgrades, so this made perfect sense...

The Fix
In order to prevent this from happening again and continually depleting my limited text messages, you need to disable the SMS feature from the specific Phone app on your device as shown below (for an Android device):

Now, when I restart my device, it no longer automatically sends text messages to 7723! 

Additional Notes
If you find this is happening to you, I would also recommend messaging the kind folks at the Moderator_Team via this link to investigate your account and to provide some additional insight into your issue. They were nice enough to reset my text usage count on my account so my limit was unaffected by this issue. Great customer service!!

It helps to provide a detailed description of your problem and what your resolution goals are so they can best assist. If you are having troubles contacting the Moderator_Team, refer to the following knowledge base link.

[darlicious]

@Snsavjbea 

Do you have the formerly $10 50/50 legacy plan now $13? If so then contact customer support as per @computergeek541 suggestion and Link to submit a ticket. In the meantime if you're out of text messages keep in mind you can send MMS messages without cost or affecting your data if you happen to have data on that account. If you have any other plan then your text messages are unlimited and there is no real concern for these messages to have been used up when they are unlimited anyhow.

[computergeek541]

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@Snsavjbea wrote:

Please reset my text usage count on my account so my limit was unaffected by this issue.

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Posting a message here won't get this done as you're mainly only interacting with other customers.  For account specific issues, please open a ticket to discuss this with a customer support agent.  That's done through:  https://widget.telus.tiia.ai/publicmobile/publicmobile.html

[Snsavjbea]

Please reset my text usage count on my account so my limit was unaffected by this issue.

[John5859]

I previously noted that the texts came in groups of five or so, each a minute or two apart then they would stop for a while - probably until I used the phone again.  The last message today was at 1:44 and it would have been the start of a group.  I changed the setting around 1:45 and did a factory reset.  I am happy to report that the texts seem to have immediately stopped.   Nothing for the last hour and a half.

If that changes I will report back, but this really seems to have solved it!

[softech]

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@John5859 wrote:

Thanks for this.  I had a look at my voicemail settings and sure enough, the visual voicemail was on.  I have turned it off.  Maybe that will fix it.

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@John5859  That would be nice!!!

try couple reboots and see if it finally stopped the secret text.

[darlicious]

@John5859 

That should do it then....report back either way so we can confirm the solution with the original OP of this thread.

[John5859]

Thanks for this.  I had a look at my voicemail settings and sure enough, the visual voicemail was on.  I have turned it off.  Maybe that will fix it.

[softech]

@John5859   Any Visual Voice mail option anywhere? maybe under Phone Settings, maybe under Message settings

apparently 7723 is the phone trying to confirm with the server if Visual VM is available.  If it is, then it won't send again.   Since PM does not have it, the device not smart enough to stop it, it will just send again every reboot

[John5859]

Sorry.  I should have said Messages not Messenger.  I presume that it is the messanging app.

[darlicious]

@John5859 

Messenger? Or your messaging app?

[John5859]

The phone is an LG K61. 

I have had problems with it restarting itself unexpectedly - yesterday in the middle of a call.  I'm thinking I need a new phone.

[John5859]

SMS is turned on only for Google, Google Play Store, Contacts and Messenger.

[softech]

@John5859   what kind of phone do you have?  is there any Visual Voicemail switch under yor phone setting?  Could be under Settings>Voicemail>Visual Voicemail, but it could be somewhere else with different phones

[darlicious]

@John5859 

Do you have SMS turned on in your Facebook messenger app? This could the source of your 7723 texts.

[John5859]

Unfortunately, the messages continued after I disallowed WhatsAp's SMS permission.

Only four Aps are listed as having SMS permissions: Contacts, Google, Google Play Store and Messenger.  I wonder if these messages are connected with information collection by Google?  I have edited some of the data collection permissions to make them more restrictive.  I will monitor the results and post how that turns out. 

[John5859]

I think that this VVM link might br important.  I have recently had this 7723 issue.  My phone was sending numerous messages minutes apart.  It was not connected to a restart. 

However, Phone was not among the apps with SMS permissions so the solution above in this thread was not the solution.  However, I did recently install WhatsAp which has visual calling and did have SMS permission.  I have denied the permission.  We will see if that stops the messages. 

[geopublic]

@PMFanatic  I think 7723 is used by Google when VVM (Visual voice mail) is turned on as part of the dialer app settings. MY understanding is if you disable VVM from the dialer then the sms will not get generated. Public Mobile does not use VVM so it would be best to disable it.