Is it possible to discover number of somebody who sends something to u via Bluetooth

laoisfan

Hi

Was on the train recently and somebody sent me a movie via bluetooth. I was in the middle of typing a text at the time and hit Yes by accident. Anyway, the movie was a bit obscene and I deleted it straight away.

But over the last few days on the train the same person has tried to send me more stuff, each time I hit No.

Is it possible to discover the number of that person? Not sure if I could report them or something or maybe just plain embarrass them somehow.

I use my bluetooth for my headset in the car and I usually forget to turn it off. Is there someway I can stop the person detecting me via bluetooth but yet keep my bluetooth turned on? My phone is a SE W810i.

Thanks - laoisfan

robinph

Send them some noisy video or mp3 back and then see who it is that has received it, then you've found the culprit and can do whatever you like.

You should be able to change your bluetooth to hidden though as your headset will already be paired with the phone, you will need to make sure that you've deleted the pairing with the other persons phone though or they will still be able to see your handset.

Ace2007

robinph wrote: »

Send them some noisy video or mp3 back and then see who it is that has received it, then you've found the culprit and can do whatever you like.

You should be able to change your bluetooth to hidden though as your headset will already be paired with the phone, you will need to make sure that you've deleted the pairing with the other persons phone though or they will still be able to see your handset.

but to send something back u have to know their (phone) and thats what he's asking

Sam Vimes

to send something back all you have to know is their bluetooth name which can be whatever they want it to be. Afaik that name is associated with a unique bluetooth address to identify that device someone in the internals of your phone but even if you could get that info, the manufacturer would then have to tell you the imei of the phone the bluetooth address is associated with and the operator would have to tell you the phone number that the imei is associated with. And both of those actions are a violation of the data protection act

robinph

Ace2007 wrote: »

but to send something back u have to know their (phone) and thats what he's asking

You just need the bluetooth name of their phone and you must already have that inorder to of received something from the other bluetooth device.

PRND

I don't think your bluetooth name is associated with anything unique at all!

I can change my name from bob to bill to ben in a matter of seconds by using my bluetooth settings.

coolmoose

You just need the bluetooth name of their phone and you must already have that inorder to of received something from the other bluetooth device

that's not entirely correct, bluetooth allows items to be sent anonymously (bluejacking), so he may not necessarily know the bluetooth name.

OP, when the file comes in does it say "accept data from xxx?" where xxx would be the name of their phone?

flywheel

bluejacking was originally used to describe sending an item to another handset which was broadcasting their presence (i.e. not set to hidden/invisible) - an ad-hoc bluetooth transfer to a device within range...

current handsets usually prompt the receiver to accept X from Y (where X was the item and Y was the Bluetooh Name of the sending device) - this is what robinph is referring to i think, that the receiver if they can remember the Bluetooh Name of the sending device may be able to send somethig back... but would only work if the sender had changed it to something unique not the default phone model number used my some handsets... again hoping that someone else isn't using the same name on their handset... only real way of ensurig you can find the same device is if the original Bluetooth MAC address was identified (as this is unique) but then that would require more tech and effort...

don't accept random stuff from strangers - and if you need bluetooh on set to hidden / not visible - keep it off if you don't need it...

Sam Vimes

PRND wrote: »

I don't think your bluetooth name is associated with anything unique at all!

I can change my name from bob to bill to ben in a matter of seconds by using my bluetooth settings.

you don't see it but your phone does. On some motorolas you'll see that when you search for devices, a load of numbers that look like mac addresses pop up and when its done that for all the devices in the area it searches for their names. It uses the number to identify the device, not the name

Donny5

Bluetooth can't sent data anonymously, the two devices need to set up a two way connection for any transfer. The devices identify themselves with Media Access Control addresses, which are (at least theoretically) device-unique. There's a good chance you can get this from a log somewhere on the phone, and maybe even ban it.
To be honest, the difficulty in tracing a MAC to a manufacturer->model->retialer->user is so great, that I doubt even reporting the perpetrator's MAC would solve anything. That said, if you get them everyday, it's likely there's a limited pool of people from which the sender comes from. So, you could check phones manually for the offending MAC.
Donal

Random

laoisfan wrote: »

I use my bluetooth for my headset in the car and I usually forget to turn it off. Is there someway I can stop the person detecting me via bluetooth but yet keep my bluetooth turned on? My phone is a SE W810i.

Menu > Settings > Connectivity > Bluetooth > Visibility > Hide Phone

Now, if you have Bluetooth on then other devices won't be able to find you but existing pairings (such as that with your carkit) will still operate.

foggy_lad

set your bluetooth to hidden and this person will/should not be able to find your device