What is “DCB_ASSOCIATION:Y3890K4x” Message in Your Mobile Phone?

If you just noticed a strange and suspicious SMS/message containing “DCB_ASSOCIATION:Y3890K4x” text sent to or received from 552740002 or some other number on your mobile phone and you are wondering what does this message mean? Who sent this message and why? Is your mobile phone hacked? This article will help you in understanding everything about this weird message.

Following is a screenshot of this strange message displayed on my Google Android smartphone:

All messages contain text starting with DCB:Y3890K4 and followed by random alphabets and numbers. Sometimes the message text starts with DCB_ASSOCIATION instead of only DCB.

If you live in India, the message is sent to/from 552740002 number which might be labelled as Distress sometimes. If you are living in other countries, the message sender/receiver might be different for different service providers (Verizon, T-Mobile, O2, AT&T, Sprint, Vodafone, Telus, MTS, etc) such as 6759, 1505, 9210, 35890, 21200, 6868, 7968, 6105, 11119999, 69005, etc.

First don’t worry about this SMS. The message is sent or received by your mobile phone to associate your mobile number with your Google Play Store account.

DCB stand for Direct Carrier Billing. As the name suggests, the message is used by Google Play Store to associate your Google Play Store account with your cellular connection i.e. mobile network for direct billing of purchases which you are going to make on Google Play Store.

Actually Google Play Store supports DCB (Direct Carrier Billing) mechanism so that users can purchase apps and other products and services on Play Store using their mobile network connection. Once you activate this payment method, all purchases amount is added by your mobile network to your monthly phone bill.

Here is how it’s done:

When you try to use this DCB method in Google Play Store via an app (in-app purchases) or direct Play Store, Play Store sends an SMS from your mobile phone to your mobile network service provider or carrier starting with DCB_ASSOCIATION or only DCB text followed by random characters which is actually an authentication hash code. Your mobile network or carrier receives the SMS containing hash code. It checks and makes sure that the message came from your mobile number and Google Play Store account and then authenticates the hash code. Once the hash code is authenticated successfully by your mobile carrier, Google Play Store adds the DCB payment method in your Google Play account. Now you can use this payment method to make purchases on Play Store.

So all those random letters and numbers are actually a part of authentication hash code generated by Google Play Store to send to your mobile network.

How to Check and Confirm DCB Payment Method in Google Play Store?

You can check yourself whether the DCB payment method has been added to your Google Play Store account using following steps. You can also remove DCB payment method with the help of following steps:

1. Open Google Play Store in your Android mobile phone.

2. Tap on 3-lines hamburger menu present at the top-left corner of the app to launch main menu.

3. Select Payment methods option from the menu.

4. Now you’ll see your mobile carrier name present in the list as following screenshot is showing my carrier name “Airtel“:

5. If you want to remove DCB payment method from Google Play Store account, tap on “More payment settings” option.

6. It’ll open your Google Play Store account settings in web browser. You might need to login using your Gmail ID used in Google Play Store account.

7. The webpage will show current DCB payment method. Tap on Remove button.

8. Google Play Store will ask for confirmation whether you want to remove the payment method. Tap on Remove button again and your mobile carrier payment method will be deleted successfully from your Google Play Store account.

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