Phone hacked? How to check your iPhone or Android and fix it

Most phone hacks are less dramatic than the movies. The common routes are:

• Phishing links in texts and emails that lead to fake login pages or malicious downloads.
• Dodgy apps, especially from outside the official App Store and Google Play. Jailbroken iPhones and rooted Android phones, which bypass those stores’ controls, are at higher risk.
• SIM swapping, where a scammer talks your carrier into moving your number to their SIM card so they receive your calls and texts, including security codes.
• Public Wi-Fi that someone else controls, and Bluetooth left open to pairing with any nearby device.

Some of these attack the phone itself. Others go after your accounts. That distinction matters when you start looking at the symptoms. A phone can be perfectly clean while your email account is wide open, and the fix for each is different. Malware means cleaning the device. A stolen password means locking down the account, ideally from another phone or computer you trust.

No single sign proves anything. A pattern of several, especially out of the blue, is what should make you act.

Signs on the phone itself

• The battery drains much faster even though you use the phone the same way. Malware running in the background eats power.
• Mobile data use jumps without a change in your habits. Malicious apps often talk to remote servers, download more malware or recruit your phone into a botnet, a network of hijacked devices.
• The phone runs hot while idle. Heat during gaming or charging is normal. Heat while it sits on a desk doing nothing is not.
• It slows down or crashes more than usual.
• Apps you don’t recognize show up. Some malware poses as ordinary tools.
• Pop-ups appear outside your browser, a classic sign of adware.
• Storage fills up faster than it should, because malware can install or copy files.
• The camera or microphone indicator lights up when you aren’t using either. Be aware that advanced spyware can sometimes avoid triggering these lights.

Signs in your accounts and messages

• Verification codes you didn’t request arrive by text or email. This usually means someone is trying your password, not that your phone is infected.
• You’re locked out of your Apple Account, Google account, email or social media, or you get password reset messages you didn’t start.
• Calls and texts stop arriving, which can be a sign of a SIM swap.
• Your call log shows calls you didn’t make, or friends say they got strange messages from you.

Plenty of these symptoms have innocent causes. An ageing battery, a recent system update or a badly made app can all drain power and slow a phone down. Low storage and outdated software cause sluggishness too. Before you panic, check a few things:

• Battery settings on both iPhone and Android show which apps use the most power. A familiar app you use a lot is normal. An unknown name near the top is not.
• Mobile data settings list data use by app. Search your settings for “cellular” or “mobile data” to find them.
• Safe Mode on Android starts the phone with only a few basic apps running. If problems vanish in Safe Mode, one of your installed apps is the culprit.
• Background App Refresh on iPhone can be switched off to see whether an app running in the background is causing heat or drain.

If the signs still point to trouble, work through these steps in order. You can do most of them in under an hour.

1. Delete apps you don’t recognize. Look through your app library on iPhone or the full app list on Android, and remove anything you didn’t install or no longer trust.
2. Clear out browser extensions. On iPhone, go to Settings, then Safari, then Extensions, and delete any you don’t know. Adware often hides here.
3. Update everything. Install the latest system update and app updates. They contain security patches that block newly discovered attacks.
4. Run a security scan. A reputable security app can find and remove malicious software, especially on Android. Your carrier may include one with your plan.
5. Change your important passwords, starting with email, your Apple or Google account, banking and social media. Do this from a different, trusted device if you can.
6. Turn on two-factor authentication (2FA) for every account that offers it, so a stolen password alone isn’t enough to get in.
7. Call your carrier. If texts and calls have stopped, or you suspect a SIM swap, ask your carrier to secure your account and add a PIN or passcode for changes.
8. Recover locked accounts. If you can’t get into your Apple Account or Google account, follow each company’s official account recovery steps straight away.

If the problems keep coming back after all that, a factory reset wipes the phone and reinstalls a clean system. It removes nearly all malware, and everything else too.

Back up your photos, contacts and files first, and make sure you know your Apple or Google account password, because you’ll need it to set the phone up again. When you restore, be choosy: reinstall apps one by one from the official store rather than restoring a full backup that might bring the problem app back with it.

A few habits block most attacks:

• Don’t tap links in unexpected texts or emails, especially ones about deliveries, payments or account problems. Go to the company’s app or website yourself.
• Install apps only from the official stores, and skip jailbreaking or rooting your phone.
• Keep automatic updates on for the system and apps.
• Turn off open Bluetooth pairing when you don’t need it, so strangers can’t push connections or files to you.
• Use unique passwords for important accounts, with a password manager to keep track.
• Lock down your phone number with a carrier PIN to make SIM swapping harder.