Has my phone been hacked??

[boomchikawahwah]

I had trouble with my ex when we broke up - hounding me with abusive text messages and voicemails, stalking me etc so much so that i contacted the police and they were going to arrest him but I stepped in and asked them not to take any further action, they accepted my wishes but said if anything happens again they will take matters out of my hands.

Last night I went into my text message inbox and realised that every single message I ever received from him (apart from the 3 most recent ones in which he is being very rational and nice) have been deleted. I'm talkinghundreds and hundreds of messages. Also been deleted are pictures that have been sent by him to my inbox and abusive voicemails.... I didn't think this was possible?! I now have no proof in which to go to the police if he becomes abusive again.

So basically what I need to know is how could this have happened and what can I do to stop it?

Is it only the ones from him, or all your text messages from other people as well?

And what kind of phone do you have? If it's a smartphone - there are apps that let you remotely wipe stuff from your phone, mostly intended to install on your OWN phone so you can wipe it in case it gets stolen. Of course if someone with ill intent has access to your phone to install such an app on it, it could be used differently.

Sorry, posted before finishing post. As for what you can do to stop it happening again - assuming this is something he has done, rather than a coincidence (my phone has been known to randomly delete all my text messages for no adequately explained reason), and assuming you have a smartphone, I think I would make a backup of all your contacts and anything you really can't live without, then reset it to factory defaults. That should take care of anything untoward lurking in the phone memory.

If your phone also has an SD card in addition to the phone memory, you'll need to check that as well. Firstly, it's possible that if any of your evidence was stored on there (text messages usually aren't, but pictures might be) instead of in the phone memory, they might be recoverable by a data recovery expert or by using some specialist software. Secondly, once you've done that, you'll need to make sure there's no dodgy apps that could allow him remote access installed on there. Again, the quick and easy way to do this is to wipe the card and start over; backup anything you want to keep and format it.

Finally, once all that's done, get some security installed. Some phones come with it and you can switch it on in the settings, for others you can download. Hard to recommend something without knowing what phone you have.

I'm sorry you're in this situation, it must be awful. I assume there is no way he's had physical access to the phone? All this is possible remotely but it'd be much, much easier for someone who actually has the thing in their hands.

Didn't one of the mobile networks offer a service where all texts and voicemail could be archived and accessed from PC ? Cannot find it now, thought it was called " Blue" but seems O2 has "Bluebook" service to back up your contacts (only) for free.

Will hunt for a while longer to see if I can find this (unused by me) service...

Yes, would help to know what your phone is right now, and if you can, consider using a "dumb" phone with the current SIM (unless it is an iPhone or some other with the micro SIM in use, you should be able to get a cheap [under 25 quid] PAYG for the same network, just to temporarily ensure any new incoming messages are saved.

Can then have smartphone checked at leisure, and if there is any remote control software on it, will be blocked from access via the internet [and even if it was remoter controlled, would have no new messages on it as the 'dumb' phone would be storing those texts etc.

Voicemail should normally not be stored on your phone but with network, so change access PIN, or disable it completely if you prefer (I know it may be inconvenient, but will mean if you 'reject' a call from him, he has no way to leave any comments [except by text, which he can no longer delete]).

Hi, thank you for your replies, I have a blackberry curve and not all my messages have been deleted - just ones from him (from his number and also another number he used to contact me) and all photo messages he sent apart from one which would have significant meaning for him have also gone. I called blackberry and they said as far as they can see,no hacking has taken place. However, there is absolutely no other explanation as I'm the only person who has access to my phone.

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