Whatsapp hacked but not sure how

[WhatsGoingOn3]

Apologies if this is long winded but I wondered if anyone else has had this and if they know what I can do to stop it happening.

Over the last few months, I’ve had issues with WhatsApp-somehow various screenshots of sections of conversation between myself and a friend keep being sent to my husband via texts from my phone, these screenshots are never in the photo section of my iPhone but they get sent to him always in photo form and always via text not actually WhatsApp. The screenshots sent are only ever between me and this same friend, never any other contacts and always to my husband. It also seems to be parts of conversation that I don’t necessarily want him to see (nothing bad before anyone jumps in, just things that I’ve been talking through with a close friend) It’s definitely not me sending them and I can’t see how the other person involved could be doing it either.

My phone was also being very weird a few months ago and kept adding this same friend to my find friends app and selecting a photo I have of them as a favourite person within my photo section.
It’s almost like my phone, this friends phone and my husbands phone have somehow kind of linked? Maybe I’m just going mad, I have tried wiping my phone back to factory settings which resolved the photo and find friends issue but the WhatsApp stuff is still happening.

If anyone has got this far with a boring but annoying issue I’d be very grateful!!

Because spyware will allow her husband to control her phone.

The sending screenshots to himself is the gaslighting.

That seems quite nasty if anyone has gone to the lengths of controlling you like that

@Iwasatglastothisyear because why would some random go through the trouble of hacking her phone, reading all messages,pick a particular friend and parts of the conversation ,screen shot it and then send those messages to her husband?

@BlockedAndDeleted
Yeah, but wasn’t under the impression that OP or her friend nor their discussions are people of national interest like the people specifically targeted in that attack.

Cos if either of them were, pretty sure Mumsnet wouldn’t be her first port of call, or at all.

It’s the husband.

Anyone can be affected by a spyware attack.
You don't have to be a person a national interest.
Plus the op said her phone started behaving strangely a few months ago, around the same time as the WhatsApp spyware attack.

Maybe I'm just not as suspicious as most of the people on here but I don't think the husband is doing this.
If he is, he's obviously a dick but given what the op said, I don't think he's guilty in the slightest.

Did you actually read the article that you linked to?

The number of people spied on is not yet known. A few targets, including a UK-based human rights lawyer and an Amnesty International researcher have been identified.

If you haven’t received any WhatsApp voice calls or dropped calls from unknown parties then you have probably not been targeted.

But if you happen to be a lawyer or work in sensitive industries and use WhatsApp, even for personal correspondence, you should be especially vigilant.

If OP is the type of lawyer who’d be vulnerable (and I’m just guessing that they don’t mean your local conveyancing solicitor) or works in a sensitive industry, she’ll be more than well aware about this and will have had help/access to security specialists.

I feel it’s more fantastical to the point of ludicrous to suspect Israeli hackers have targeted her rather than the person with whom she lives.

I’m not saying it’s the husband because I’m “suspicious”. I’m saying because he has the easiest access and ability, as I said from the start of my very first post - Occam’s razor.

The simplest explanation is the most likely.

Iwasatglastothisyear The screenshot in her phone gallery means it's very unlikely to be the hack, even if OP or her husband are famous enough to have been targeted. The hack has access to your phone, it wouldn't need to screenshot and then delete.

The fact that OP found a deleted screenshot on her phone means it's exceedingly likely to be someone with local access to the phone. The fact that the only conversations being shared are those with her friend where she was discussing her husband makes this even more likely. Who else would have access to her phone and interest?

I'm not husband bashing, I think they generally get a hard time on here and I'd like to think the vast majority of men wouldn't dream of setting a weird thing up like this, but he is the most likely suspect here. Next would be anyone else with access to OPs phone on a regular enough basis, who had access around the date that the screenshot was found, and would have any interest in sharing OPs private thoughts about her husband with him.

@WhatsGoingOn3 any chance of an update on your phone situation?

Well, I reset my phone yesterday, changed all passwords/passcodes, ensured that all two-factor authentication was enabled, I’ve removed an unused email address that iMessages can be sent from yet this morning my husband woke to another set of screenshots of old messages between me and the same friend, these messages weren’t even on my phone anymore, they’d been deleted a while ago so I’m left even more confused.

I’d like to say that I don’t believe it is my husband, I do not believe he is ‘gaslighting’ me and taking them himself, regardless of what the majority of you have said. Saying that though I have no idea what is happening, he has now deleted WhatsApp and changed his iTunes password today so we shall see what happens. I am also going to change my Apple ID to see if that makes a difference.

I would be grateful for any advice but not advice that tells me that my husband is doing this and gaslighting me.

Just to clarify, they were sent as a text from your phone?

Your phone shows the text’s as having been sent to him?

The texts don't show on my phone, the screenshots don't show either.

This is absolutely baffling. Any history between your friend and your dh?

OP. Have you got definitive proof its not your husband fucking with you. For example, where was YOUR phone and YOUR iPad at the exact time he received the messages?

i.e if he received one on Monday at 4pm where was your phone/ipad at that exact moment?

Are the images from your point of view or your interlocutors?

Are the images from your point of view or your interlocutors?

This. It'll help us work out if it's your phone or your friends!

I’ve just seen that the texts are iMessages and not normal text.

Are both phones on separate contracts or both on the same one?

For example I am the bill payer for my phone and my sons phone. When I took out the sun contract with my iPhone I could add an extra sim which I did and my son uses it.

You coming back oP? :)

I think you need to take all your Apple gadgets to the Apple store and ask them whats happening.

@OP is there an update??

@WhatsGoingOn3 are you ok?

How bloody odd!

You may have solved the problem or already done this - and I have RTFT but didn't see - did you check what devices were enabled for iMessage under your Apple ID? Might be an old one there that still has access. Plus you can remove everything and narrow down the culprit.

So you will only be taking advice that you like the sound of then OP?

Unfortunately OP what you are suggesting has happened is near on impossible in terms of a technology glitch. Someone you know is surely doing it.

My samsung phone (and a lot of modern phones) allow more than one whatsapp registration per phone (as well as Facebook etc) it would be ridiculously easy to pretend to be someone else or even text myself on WhatsApp- I literally have to test it.

WhatsApp web can also be open on anyone's desktop device, no password is needed, they just will have needed to hold your unlocked phone for a few seconds to scan a QR code.

My phone is linked to my chromebook and I can go on it and it shows what i am doing on my phone, if i use my DP's i in turn can open his whatsapp on it, and see what tabs he is using on his phone at work in real time- see his cloud gallery etc ( not that I care to) it's a standard feature, no app required.

I'd give it some thought OP, friend or husband could be responsible, I'd not discount them because you find it hard to consider it. Check his phone for a second WhatsApp (same app logo but with little ring icons in the top right corner) or his sent messages or screenshot gallery.

Send something salacious and ridiculous to your friend, see if that turns up.

Do your friend and DH get on?

Have you actually checked the number attached to the contact that is sending these messages to your husbands phone? It may be saying your name as the contact but your husband can name any number what he wants, it’s not very nice to think but he could be making it look like your phone sending it when it’s not.