Hi everyone! I’m hoping someone who understands iMessage or has experienced something similar can help me figure out what happened.
(Coach screenshot is white background and mine is the black background)
Today at 8:41 AM, my coach sent me a message about starting the pool heater. At 12:36 PM, she sent another message asking if we were still on for swim that afternoon.
The strangest part is that, within seconds of messaging me, she received a gray incoming message in our existing conversation that said:
“You have the wrong phone number.”
I did not type or send that message. It also does not appear anywhere in my own Messages conversation.
Coach then messaged me and another person in a group, and I received those messages in the group text.
When Coach arrived she showed me her phone with the our texts and asked if I changed my number. I said I didn’t and we doubled checked my contact info on her phone. I then texted her saying, “Hey Coach!” to see if if my text went through and it did! She received that text right then and there as she was showing me our text thread.
A few additional details:
● We both use iPhones.
● The conversation was our existing individual iMessage thread.
● My outgoing messages were successfully received by her.
● We were later able to communicate in a group chat without an issue.
● My Apple Account device list showed only devices I recognize.
● I changed my Apple Account password and confirmed that two-factor authentication is enabled.
● My trusted phone number and Messages “Send & Receive” settings are correct.
● I contacted T-Mobile, and they didn’t identify an issue.
● I contacted Apple’s automated support system, but it didn’t give me a specific explanation.
I’m updating my iPhone and plan to speak with a live Apple Support representative.
My questions are:
- How could an incoming iMessage appear on someone else’s phone as coming from my number if I never sent it and it isn’t in my own conversation?
- Could this be an iMessage registration, syncing, or software issue?
- Could another Apple device or session be involved even if it doesn’t appear in my device list?
- Has anyone experienced this exact combination of an unexpected message and missing incoming iMessages? Did you ever find out what caused it?
I’m not trying to jump to the conclusion that I’ve been hacked. I just want to understand what could explain this and what I should ask Apple to investigate.
Thank you!
UPDATE: I spoke with Apple Support today
I wanted to update everyone since several people gave me suggestions and helped me think through different possibilities.
I spoke with an Apple Support representative today, and she was genuinely helpful and reassuring. She reviewed my Apple Account and told me that everything looked good on her end and that there were no security issues flagged on my account.
She asked me to share my screen so she could see what I was talking about. I showed her the screenshot my swim coach sent me, along with our actual Messages conversation on my iPhone. As I scrolled through the conversation, she noticed that the two messages from 8:41 AM and 12:36 PM shown in the screenshot weren’t present in my conversation.
She said something along the lines of, “Oh, that’s very interesting,” and acknowledged that the situation was strange. I honestly thought I was going crazy trying to explain it, so it was reassuring that she could see the discrepancy herself.
She said the unexpected gray message looked like an iMessage, but she mentioned that it could potentially be a glitch on my coach’s end. She couldn’t tell us exactly what caused it.
Before the call, I had already changed my Apple Account password, enabled two-factor authentication, checked my trusted phone number and iMessage settings, and removed two old devices that belonged to me from my account’s device list. I also contacted T-Mobile, and they didn’t identify anything obvious.
Apple recommended that my coach contact Apple Support and her carrier to have them investigate from her side.
At this point, I don’t have evidence that my account was compromised, and Apple didn’t identify an obvious security issue. However, the messaging discrepancy is still unexplained, so I’d like to understand what happened rather than assume it’s hacking or dismiss it as a glitch.
For anyone who has experienced something similar: Has Apple ever been able to explain why an iMessage appeared on the recipient’s phone but was missing from the sender’s conversation? I’m especially interested in hearing from anyone who had this investigated by Apple Support.
Thank you to everyone who offered suggestions! I appreciate the help and will update again if we find out anything else.
UPDATE 2: We found another clue
I just spoke with my swim coach again, and there’s another detail that might be relevant.
She found a second contact on her iPad with the same name as me and the same area code, but a different full phone number. In that contact’s conversation, there was a message saying, “You have the wrong number.”
Somehow, the message appeared in the conversation on her iPhone as though I had sent it, even though I never typed or sent it. I also never received that message on my own iPhone.
For context, I already spoke with Apple Support. The representative reviewed my Apple Account, watched me screen-share my Messages conversation, and noticed that the messages shown in my coach’s screenshot were missing from my phone. She said everything looked good on my account and nothing was flagged on her end. She acknowledged that the situation was unusual and recommended that my coach contact Apple Support and her carrier.
Now we’re wondering whether the second contact, a possible conversation mix-up, or an issue syncing messages between her iPhone and iPad could be involved. However, we haven’t confirmed that any of these explanations is correct.
My coach plans to contact Apple Support to investigate what happened on her devices.
Has anyone experienced an iMessage appearing to come from the wrong contact, particularly when duplicate contact names or multiple Apple devices are involved?
I’d appreciate any technical insight as I’m trying to understand what happened
Thank you to everyone who’s been helping me troubleshoot this!