I'm worried that my wife's phone might have been hacked. Recently, she received two FaceTime calls from a friend around noon, but she didn't respond until the following morning. In their chat, she sent a message in the morning, but their last conversation was from back in November. The strange part is that her friend received messages at 3 AM from my wife's number, asking "who is this" and some other questions, but my wife was asleep at that time and didn't send those texts. How could someone be sending messages from her number without them appearing in her iMessage chat?
2 Answers
Here are some security steps you should take right away:
1) Go to Find My -> Devices, select any devices that aren't in your wife's possession, turn on "Lost Mode," and then choose "Erase This Device". Don’t remove it from the account until you confirm it’s erased.
2) Change her password and select "Sign Out of All Devices" in the settings.
3) Sign out of iMessage and FaceTime on her phone, then sign back in if she wants to.
4) Turn on SIM PIN protection under Settings -> Cellular -> select the active SIM.
5) Check settings under Privacy & Security -> Safety Check, and follow the prompts.
6) Contact Apple Support, share screenshots from her friend and details from her messages.
Also, some questions to consider: how long has she had her phone number? Are there any old devices still registered under her Apple account? And were the texts her friend got green (SMS) or blue (iMessage)?
You might want to check with your phone carrier. It’s possible that her SIM card was compromised through a SIM swap attack, which is becoming more common. As for iPhone 15, it uses an eSIM, but a SIM swap can still happen in different forms. Also, consider that her iCloud account could be at risk due to password issues or if she's a high-profile target, malware could be involved. Definitely worth investigating further!
She’s had the same number for over 10 years and doesn’t see any unfamiliar devices linked to her Apple account. She recently updated her Apple ID when she switched to her new phone. And those messages her friend got were iMessage (the blue ones), but they didn’t show on my wife's side at all.