topic Re: Is my phone infected? How can this happen? in Get Support

Is my phone infected? How can this happen?

Micco — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 06:34:20 GMT

Yesterday I received a weird text message that showed it came from my husband's iphone.

He did not send the message.

Also on my husband's phone he received the exact weird text message that showed it came from me. I did not send the message.

Both messages show received at the identical times.

How can this happen? Is one or both of our phones infected?

Re: Is my phone infected? How can this happen?

will13am — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 14:45:59 GMT

What model of phones are these. There is no record of the outgoing message? Number spoofing is quite simple for scammers.

Re: Is my phone infected? How can this happen?

hairbag1 — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 15:08:18 GMT

@Micco wrote:
Yesterday I received a weird text message that showed it came from my husband's iphone.
He did not send the message.
Also on my husband's phone he received the exact weird text message that showed it came from me. I did not send the message.
Both messages show received at the identical times.
How can this happen? Is one or both of our phones infected?

Just don't respond to the bogus texts. Hopefully, they stop soon. If they continue and get worse, you both may have to consider changing your phone numbers.

Re: Is my phone infected? How can this happen?

LurganIeUk — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 15:44:30 GMT

@will13am wrote:
What model of phones are these. There is no record of the outgoing message? Number spoofing is quite simple for scammers.

But.....who would know that the numbers belong to husband and wife?

The originator knows them some how??

But for sure don’t respond.

Re: Is my phone infected? How can this happen?

Micco — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 16:09:58 GMT

Iphone 7 plus and Iphone 6. No record of outgoing message.

Can Public Mobile investigate where it came from?

Re: Is my phone infected? How can this happen?

hTideGnow — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 16:12:12 GMT

@Micco are you and your husband both PM? Can you logon to Self-Serve to see if there is a history for the outgoing text?

Re: Is my phone infected? How can this happen?

Micco — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 16:59:58 GMT

Yes we are both with PM and I did check both of our logs and there is nothing showing at the day and time that we received the message.

Re: Is my phone infected? How can this happen?

hTideGnow — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 18:56:34 GMT

@Micco it is concerning why you got your husband mysterious text and your husband got similar one from your.

Is the content of the text the same?

Did you check any of your friends and your husband's if they get similar text? Usually if it is infected, it would try to send to your whole contact list instead of just one.

Re: Is my phone infected? How can this happen?

Micco — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 19:52:36 GMT

Yes it is very concerning to me how this could happen.

Yes the content was exactly the same, same day, same time.

I checked with contacts that I am most in touch with and nobody received anything weird from me.

Not really getting any answers on how this could happen and what I should do about it.

How do I request PM to look into it?

Re: Is my phone infected? How can this happen?

RosieR — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 20:06:48 GMT

@Micco wrote:
Yes it is very concerning to me how this could happen.
Yes the content was exactly the same, same day, same time.
I checked with contacts that I am most in touch with and nobody received anything weird from me.

Not really getting any answers on how this could happen and what I should do about it.
How do I request PM to look into it?

Hi @Micco

Two ways to contact the moderators:

Faster way – Click the chat bubble at the bottom right of the page or click this link >> type “talk to human" >> "account-specific question" >> "no, I need a human now" >> Click here to submit a ticket!
Slower way – Send a private message to the Moderators_Team here. You have to be logged in to your Community account for the link to work.

It may take up to 48 hrs (faster response these days) to receive a reply from the moderators. Keep an eye on the envelope icon on top right for a number to pop up. That would be the moderator’s reply.

Please keep us posted. Thanks in advance

RosieR

Re: Is my phone infected? How can this happen?

gpixel — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 23:43:58 GMT

@Micco there is a good chance that the perpetrator is using iMessage to send these texts. check for web usage history around that time. take note that the details page is showing eastern time.

check your apps and delete any apps you don't recognize. maybe it's a good time to save your important data on the device and then do a factory reset. it's also a good idea to leave your internet(wifi/mobile data) off for the time being. until you factory reset both devices. a hacker cannot do anything without an internet connection. then be very careful which apps you decide to install

Re: Is my phone infected? How can this happen?

LurganIeUk — Sat, 27 Mar 2021 00:41:33 GMT

@Micco

If on an iPhone. Look at top of message and you will see a name or number of sender...tap it....then tap the i for information. What do you see?

Re: Is my phone infected? How can this happen?

Camera4617 — Sat, 27 Mar 2021 01:25:16 GMT

@Micco Is it iMessage or SMS message that both received (green or blue)? If it is iMessage, it could be sent from some other device and if you don't have any other devices that you use for messaging (like other phone, iPad, Mac), there is a chance that they got into your Apple account and using it. It's just a guess, so I'd check that and change your apple password.

If it is green (SMS), then I have no reasonable option how they know you two are husband and wife.

Re: Is my phone infected? How can this happen?

Micco — Sat, 27 Mar 2021 04:11:48 GMT

Thanks for this question cause it made me double check both phones.

It was an iMessage (blue) sent from hubby phone to my phone that received it only (grey).

It appears I was confused on my initial posting - sorry for that everyone.

But hubby still did not send the text himself.

I have changed the Apple password.

Re: Is my phone infected? How can this happen?

LurganIeUk — Sat, 27 Mar 2021 04:23:42 GMT

You might want to change passcodes on both phones as well and have auto-lock set to 30 seconds or so. Could be some one being a clown with phone still unlocked...passcode wise. Or definitely have them auto-lock faster.

Re: Is my phone infected? How can this happen?

darlicious — Sat, 27 Mar 2021 04:37:56 GMT

@Micco

Being that it is iMessage the moderators will not be able to help you.