Your Ex Keeps Texting From New Numbers After You Blocked Them
Reviewed by Jacob Reed, founder of Verity ·
Short answer
A block only stops the one number you blocked. When the same person comes back from a new number, a texting-app number or someone else's phone, save every message from every number, write down each number with the date it first appeared, and keep them together as one record. If there is a protective or no-contact order, a message from a new number can be a violation on its own: show the police or the court the record. Don't reply from anger, and don't delete anything.
Getting around a block is a pattern of its own. Each new number shows someone choosing to keep up contact after being shut out.
Why new numbers keep appearing
Texting apps hand out a new number in minutes, a new SIM card costs little, and a friend's or relative's phone is always there. Then come email, social apps and payment-app notes. None of it hides who is writing for long: the wording, the topics and the timing usually make it plain.
What to save, number by number
- Leave every conversation on the phone. Don't delete the thread or the number.
- Screenshot the top of each conversation so the full number shows, then the messages with their dates.
- Export each conversation as a file: iPhone, Google Messages or an SMS Backup & Restore file.
- Keep a short list: the number, the first and last date, the app, a line on what was said, and when you asked them to stop. A simple co-parenting log works.
Blocking or muting?
On an iPhone, messages from a blocked number are not delivered and not saved; on Android, Google Messages keeps them in a Spam & blocked folder. If you need the record, ask your lawyer whether to mute the new number instead, so the messages keep arriving quietly. The details are in where texts from blocked numbers go.
If there is a protective or no-contact order
These orders usually forbid contact by any means: other numbers, apps, email, and messages passed on through other people. A text from a new number can be a violation in its own right. Report it to the police with your record, and tell your lawyer or the court that made the order. See texts as evidence for a protective order.
If there is no order yet
Repeated messages after you have clearly said stop can be harassment under many states' laws. If it is safe to do so, one plain message ("Please stop contacting me") puts your request on record; after that, don't reply. How to show it is in how to prove harassment with text messages.
Who is behind a number?
When it isn't obvious, a lawyer can ask a court to order the phone company or app to identify the account holder. You don't need to be sure before you save the messages: save them now and let that question be answered later.
Checking several numbers with Verity
Each number is its own conversation in an export, so Verity checks one at a time. Check the main thread, then each new number's, and keep the numbered list of each; side by side, the dates show the sequence. The file is read in your browser and is not uploaded.
What a pattern check can't do
It reads the words and times in each conversation. It can't prove who owns a number, and it can't see messages that were never delivered. Our methodology page sets out what Verity measured and where it falls short.
Where does Verity fit?
The free preview flags threats, harassment patterns and floods of messages and lets you read every message numbered in date order. Paid options are one-time: the numbered list ($19), or a report quoting the flagged messages with their dates ($99 Standard, $149 Detailed).
This is general information, not legal advice; protective orders and harassment laws differ by state. If you are in danger, call 911; the National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233, or text START to 88788.
Put every number's messages in order
Try the sample first, or drop in your export. It is read in your browser and is not uploaded.