Hi everyone! My wife and I are worried that her phone might have been compromised, along with her email accounts. Let me share the sequence of events and hopefully get some advice. Last Sunday night, my wife tried to send me an email, but it never arrived. We didn't think much of it since she doesn't check her emails often. However, when she checked her Hotmail account today, it was completely empty. None of her emails were there. We tried to sign back in, but that didn't work, and when we attempted to reset her password, she never received the verification text. Things got stranger; while I was chatting with her on WhatsApp, her message previews lost their contact names and showed only phone numbers. In my WhatsApp, her profile picture vanished from our chats, although her name remained intact. Additionally, her WhatsApp interface looked odd, with a transparent bottom bar overlaying message previews. Now, her WiFi option has disappeared, but mine's fine. We're a bit freaked out and would appreciate any advice! Thank you!
4 Answers
It might also be that her phone isn't updated or it could be running low on storage, which can cause weird behavior.
It sounds like her phone itself hasn't been hacked. If her email wasn't secure or her password was weak, someone could've accessed it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the phone was compromised. By the way, when you mention her WiFi is gone, what do you mean?
If her device is up to date, it would be very unlikely that someone hacked her iOS device directly.
By 'fully updated', do you mean to the latest iOS version? I doubt it is updated. This whole situation feels like someone accessed her Hotmail and somehow affected her WhatsApp and even her Apple ID. She used to show as an iMessage option, but that’s gone now.
You should check her settings for any enabled VPNs or device management profiles. If the WiFi option has disappeared, it's possible the modem in her phone might have failed.
Are you implying that if there's something suspicious going on, she might accidentally see a VPN there? If her modem has failed, could that explain the strange activity as well?
She had two-step verification on her Hotmail, but I can't double-check right now since she's busy with our toddler. Right before I left, she mentioned her WiFi had disappeared too.