How to Find Out Who Hacked Your Cell Phone: Examples and Tips to Avoid

There are about 328 million people in the US and more than 294 million use smartphones. That’s an adoption rate that rivals wearing shoes or using utensils at meals.
Where one group (users) see an opportunity to connect, others (scammers) see an opportunity to rip people off. Unfortunately, with 294 million smartphone users the scammers or hackers have plenty of potential victims, and many are not educated about avoiding victimization.
Sometimes it’s as easy as a scammer getting your email address.

How to Avoid Phone Hacks and be Protected?

Two-factor authentication was supposed to help us avoid hacking but it has actually made things easier for hackers. Two-factor authentication is the security feature on websites like bank accounts that sends a secret text to your phone when you try to log on or change your password. If a hacker has control of your cell phone they can break into all of your accounts because the cell phone provides authorization for any actions including moving your savings to another bank.

Email number lookup searches that provide your email and related phone number may also give hackers open access to hijack your accounts. By having one of those key pieces of information, such as your number through a phone lookup database, hackers may be able to break into your email and gather enough of your personal information to take bigger steps, like porting your cell phone number or SIM swapping. And they don’t have to steal your phone to do it, all of these hacks can take place remotely.

Experts suggest adding a PIN number to your cell phone account access, something you’ll remember so that the account is locked to hackers. Other important steps:

• do not click on unknown links in SMS or text messages
• only use apps downloaded from a reputable app store, not from a text or email
• add PIN numbers to your bank accounts, investment accounts, and crypto lockers
• lock your credit reports by contacting the major credit reporting agencies so that no one can get loans, new credit cards, or make major purchases in your name
• use a different email address for your bank and credit accounts than you do for everyday messaging
• use an online service like Google Voice to receive texts about account change authorizations

How Hackers Target People for Hacking Their Phones?

 

The actual number of victims of this online threat is not estimated to be particularly high due to the work involved on the hacker’s part: they often bribe phone company employees to release numbers for porting, which gives them total access to your accounts. Other times hackers have been able to talk their way into account access because they have enough of the phone owner’s personal information from their emails and texts to sound convincing.

Even individuals with high net worth and public profiles, like the CEO of Twitter, have been hacked. In fact, those with the most to lose are juicy targets for hackers, who may seek more than funds from the victim’s accounts, things like contacts within that person’s phone. One man lost over $23 million in cryptocurrency through a phone hack, which is not guaranteed like unauthorized, insured bank fraud is.

How Hackers Find Victims?

• the Dark Web offers many opportunities to pick up information about people’s identities that are sold by hackers. This information can provide most of what a scammer needs to impersonate the individual;
• email number lookup and phone lookup databases help to flesh out the individual’s information,
• RFID readers can pick up credit card information through unsecured wallets, and email lookup information can provide the rest of what’s needed to open new cards;
• unsecured wifi networks in public places like airports and coffee shops allow hackers to collect information from phones, even when users aren’t actively using the wifi;
• SIM swapping uses a basic amount of phone owner information, relying on the phone carrier to allow the hacker (through persuasion or bribes) to

Hacking Phones Examples

In most cases, people have no idea they’re being hacked until they see their phone says “no service.” These individuals have no ability to use any of the apps or even the dialing capability of their phones. They’re unable to stop the person with control of the phone, who is busily porting the phone number to another account, then moving the individual’s money out of their bank account, and taking over contacts.

Even when the individual being hacked is able to contact their bank, the hacker with control of the phone is likely to have sole access to the authentication texts the bank requires.

Your phone may be hijacked while you are using it, too. Some hackers are able to enter your phone through malware – like a fake ad you clicked on – and can watch your activity, use your data, and even collect information about you. Beware of this spy activity by:

• being alert to unusually high data usage;
• the phone freezing or crashing;
• unknown texts or calls showing up in your outbox;
• less battery life.

What You Should Do When Your Phone Is Hacked?

If you suddenly see “no service” on your phone, contact your phone carrier and financial institutions immediately. In addition:

• Put holds on your accounts.
• Change your passwords and user names too if possible.
• Speak to bank officials specifically responsible for money lost to fraud.
• Take notes on who you contacted at each institution.
• Report the incident to the police.

What Are The Steps To Find Out Who Hacked Your Phone?

Finding out who hacked your phone is challenging as it might be someone in another country who cannot be held responsible in U.S. courts.

Police and FBI may collect information about the incident if they have the capability to trace such events. It’s important to make a police report because the scheme may be enabled by someone within the phone company who was bribed to allow the account to be hacked, and a police report is needed to make an insurance claim or to take the issue further with banks, credit card companies, and anyone who needs your personal information in the future (you may carry a letter for a while that explains your identity theft).

Local police are likely to send the information to the FBI which is capable of prosecuting interstate crimes, which are federal offenses.