SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Ominous text messages directing Yellowknife residents to a mysterious Twitter account had some people scratching their heads this week. Others were just annoyed.

Several Yellowknifers were caught off guard in the early hours of Tuesday and Wednesday when they received messages directing them to the since-suspended YKLeaks Twitter account. One woman who received the message said further ones have become harassing.

The Twitter profile, YKLeaks, had been posting information from Yellowknife's court docket - specifically the names of individuals and charges laid against them - and had more recently begun posting the passwords to protected wireless Internet connections.

"I got a text message on my Android (smartphone)," said one resident who received a message directing her to YKLeaks early Tuesday morning. "I texted the number, but there was no response. I questioned why they were sending me texts at five in the morning."

The woman asked not to be identified, saying some messages were becoming harassing.

She later took to Twitter to voice her displeasure with the messages. After those tweets, however, the woman started receiving a different type of message on her phone.

"Once I started tweeting them, they started sending me push notifications."

The messages - Class 0 messages - are those displayed directly on the phone's screen, but are not saved into its memory. That means when you navigate away from the message, it's gone.

Android users have the option to save Class 0 messages to the phone's memory, at which point a phone number would be attached to the message.

Those with iPhones do not have the option to save the messages, only to dismiss them.

As of noon Wednesday, the YKLeaks account had been suspended.

However, even with the account suspended on Twitter, the messages have not stopped.

More Class 0 messages followed, with some directly targeting the woman, and others sent to a larger group of people.

There was also something else that people received - phantom voice-mail notifications. A lot of them.

Some cellphone users in Yellowknife started to receive notifications on their phones that they had a large number of voicemails - many people reported 254 - but when they called to check their in-box, it was empty.

"I got (the original message), and then within the next 12 hours, I had all this notification for all these voice-mails," said Scott Thomson, who added that he's heard from at least 15 other people who have received the same notification.

The voice-mail notifications were not exclusive to one type of phone, with users of iPhones, Androids and Blackberries receiving it.

There were more Class 0 messages sent as well.

"@YKLEAKS FOREVER," reads one that was sent out Thursday evening.

"YKLeaks is on the move. Stay tuned for more," read another sent out Friday morning.

Marie-Eve Francoeur, a spokesperson for Bell Canada, said the company is looking to do an internal investigation in regards to these messages and the phantom voice-mails.

"We are investigating the whole situation. We can't offer a conclusion yet," she said.

However, the man whose number those messages were said to be coming from, insists he is the victim of a crime.

"I am in no way behind this," Kyle Thomas told News/North when the number attached to those text messages was called Wednesday morning. "Someone spoofed my number."

Number spoofing refers to when a text message or phone call is made with the number changed to another. There are several paid services available both online and as smartphone applications that enable users to do this.

It is unknown at this point how many text messages were sent out or how the numbers were obtained, although the Twitter account, in response to a tweet, stated the numbers were on a "database."

Thomas said he feels that what the individual behind this account is doing is wrong.

"It's a touchy subject," he said. "This person is doing something illegal."

Thomas said he was planning to file a complaint with the RCMP last Wednesday, and was looking at the possibility of changing his phone number.

Sgt. Marc Coulombe, spokesperson for the Yellowknife RCMP detachment, said there is not much that the police can do.

"There's nothing we can do," he said in regards to number spoofing, as it isn't specifically illegal. "The ones that know what they're doing are so far underground and use proxy after proxy, and are impossible to catch.

"It's the stupid ones we catch."

Coulombe confirmed that a complaint had been filed Wednesday in regards to the YKLeaks Twitter account.

Francoeur said Bell Canada will also be looking to do an internal investigation into the number spoofing as well.

The YKLeaks account has run into stoppages before. In February the account - then known as YKOffenders - stopped posting tweets, citing "legal matters."

Prior to Wednesday's account suspension, the person or persons behind the YKLeaks account had agreed to talk to News/North, but would only do so through Twitter. Nobody from the account has made contact with News/North since then.

Twitter did not respond to News/North's request for comment on why the account was suspended by press time.

According to Twitter's rules and policies posted on its website, accounts are open to suspension for numerous reasons, including spamming, posting private information, violence and threats, trademark infringement and using an account for illegal activities.

Several people, including Thomson, told News/North that they had reported the YKLeaks account to Twitter.

"They spammed all four of my Twitter accounts," said Thomson, who operates accounts related to the gym that he owns, Just Fitness. "So I reported from all four."