My Symptoms: Consistent through time unless otherwise noted, across Blackberry models (8830 and 9930) and among multiple devices of the same model which indicates it's not a hardware problem. pdf
Cellphone: Verizon Blackberry 8830 and 9930 (vanilla), Google Maps is the only ap installed. Few photos and notes - little other data stored. Very conventional, low activity use. The cellphone provides tethered Internet access for my laptop.
- Extremely short cellphone battery life, even for new phones with brand new batteries.
- Cellphone locks up very frequently and has to be reset, often at least 3 - 4 times a day. If I don't use the cellphone for an extended period of time, 12 hours or overnight, it usually has to be reset.
- The reset time is unusually long (alt -right shift- del). When I get a brand new Blackberry, the reset time is normal. Something happens and the reset time suddenly increases dramatically.
- The cellphone often resets for no reason, even when it's sitting unattended. When the cellphone automatically resets this way, it sometimes recovers with the ringer set to silent.
- The cellphone ring volume is often changed to silent and/or Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and/or NFC are turned on as if the cellphone is under someone else's control.
- The Internet browser often closes* and has to be reopened when I'm reading web pages on line.
- When strangers call my cellphone for the first time, my cellphone often does not ring. They hear my phone ringing and my voice mail message. There is no indication of an inbound call or a cellphone message on my phone. Regular callers are usually connected without a delay or problems.
- I tried to install SMobile Systems Cellphone Spyware Protection, a U.S. Government favorite, on my Blackberry 8830 in 2009 but it would NOT install. SMobile systems said they had 10,000 Blackberrys 8830s like mine running their software. They said "it must be something in the network." The software would NOT install on a brand new Blackberry I bought trying to evade any existing malware.
- My cellphone Voice Mail messages often appear many hours or even days late without any indication of an inbound call on my cellphone. Voice mail messages from regular callers usually appear promptly. Voice mail messages I deleted many weeks and sometimes months ago sometimes reappear in my Voice Mail Box for no reason. Someone is trying to Gaslight me.
- I often watched calls come into my cellphone and saw both the calling number and the voice mail message indicator disappear before I could pick up the phone - this has NOT happened recently.
- When I called companies with large customer service groups I often got the same customer service agent over and over again. This is a statistical impossibility. Incoming calls are routed the next available customer service agent. On repeated calls I should be connected to many different agents.
- People often complain that I did not return their calls when I did not receive their Voice Mail message and I did not have an inbound call indication on my cellphone.
- I was blocked from viewing Marcy Wheeler's EmptyWheel.net site with a "This connection has been disallowed by your Administrator." It now reads "Unable to connect using the current security settings. Please contact your service provider." I now get the same message for TheIntercept.com *
- Google was coming up in foreign languages. I use http://Google.com/ncr for No Country Redirect.*
- Verizon claimed they could find nothing wrong with my cellphone or their service when I complained to them and the FTC in the 2008 - 2009 time frame.
- The cellphone often lit up for no reason when left unattended. This has not happened recently.
* May be due to an outdated browser/cellphone - I use the default vanilla Blackberry browser (IE icon)
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