How do you check if your phone is hacked? The majority of the people have no clear answer to this question. Mobile phones have become an integral part of our lives. People use it to make calls, send text messages, browse the internet, check emails. In short, from doing business to entertainment, phones have become an inseparable part of our lives.
This increased reliance on smartphones has made them easy and obvious targets for hackers. Someone who hacks into your phone can check your messages, your communications on social media networks, they can even intercept the voice calls. The risks are high. Your social media accounts are linked to your phone, your internet banking accounts are linked to your phones. Your email accounts are linked- in short, everything that you go about whether in business or in personal life, your phone is a part of it. In fact, phones have become an extension of our personality.
If your phone is hacked, it would start showing signs. Abrupt or frequent pop up messages, suspicious emails and suspicious applications requesting access to core services are all red flags. This might alert you to something fishy going. But how do you make sure if your phone is hacked? Mobiritz would like to share 6 codes with you that can tell if your phone is hacked. The codes are super easy to use, as easy as dialing a number.
Here are 6 codes to check if your phone is hacked.
Check your IMEI number
IMEI is an acronym for International Mobile Equipment Identity. This is a unique identifier for every mobile phone. Similar to what we have Mac address in networks. While the IMEI number would not directly let you know if your phone is hacked, it can come in very handy once your doubts become a grim reality. You can use this number to report the hacking attempt to the law enforcement agencies. Your mobile phone operator might also help you with the information needed if the IMEI is provided. To check your IMEI number, simply dial *#06#. It is advisable to note down your IMEI at a safe location for later use.
Voice Call Interception Check using *#61#
Hackers can intercept your calls and can even redirect your calls to a different number by tampering with the conditional call forwarding feature that is built into almost all modern phones. To check your call forwarding logs, you can simply dial *#61#. This would show you a summary of all or any forwarding service that has been activated on your phone without your knowledge or consent.
Interception while the device is not available using *#62#
Hackers might be able to attend to your calls or receive your messages while your phone is switched off or out of the service area. To check this, simply dial *#62# from your phone. If it shows you a number other than your voice mail, chances are that a hacker has redirected the calls and SMS to a different number while your device is out of service area or is switched off. To fix this, all you have to do is dial ##62#.
Voice Calls interception while you are busy
Hackers are able to intercept the calls if you reject them. If your number is busy on another call, the incoming call would be redirected to a different number. The same applies if you reject a call. To check this, dial *#67#. If this code returns an unknown number, you can turn that off by dialing ##67# from your phone.
Check all conditional forwarding by *#004#
Modern phones come with a bunch of conditional forwarding services. These services are obviously built for your convenience. But the same can be used against you. If your phone is hacked, a hacker can manipulate the forwarding service to spy on your phone. To check all the conditional forwarding services, you can dial *#004#.
Explicit Forwarding and Diversion
Advanced hackers can divert all your calls or messages to a different number, irrespective of the conditional logic.
Such activity is harder to spot. A diversion cancels and redirects call to another line without even allowing your phone to ring. As a result, it never shows up on your phone bill (unlike conditional forwarding when your phone number technically receives the call).
Dial *#21# and find out if your phone is hacked this way. If you see that it was, just dial ##21# to erase these settings.
Check all conditional and unconditional forwarding services
Dial *#002# to check for all conditional and unconditional forwarding services. If you find anything suspicious here, just dial ##002#, and all settings would be restored to factory default.