Phone was hacked? - AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777

Hi all,
This is the first time I have ever heard of something like this happening, ever.
My mom has a Samsung Galaxy S II on Rogers (Canada). I came to this board because the phone looks the same as this AT&T one.
Anyway my mom told me the other day that she had plugged her phone in to go to bed like she normally does and the screen flashed on as usual then went off as usual. But then as she was walking away the screen came on again. She thought that was weird so she went back to her phone to see what it was doing.
She said she saw an app open up then close out, then the dialer opened up and numbers started going into it all by itself along with a # and * signs. The numbers didn't make sense to her.
She panicked and shut the phone off.
At the time, she would have been connected to their home wifi network as well as rogers 3g network. I was like wow that sounds crazy. It sounded like a Trojan Horse virus that you could get on your PC.
She called Rogers the same night and they didn't see anything weird in her data history but she was of course connected to wifi. They told her to change the wifi password for her network and that's about it.
I checked out all the apps on the phone and I didn't see anything suspicious but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
If her phone wasn't hacked and someone was remotely manipulating it, what else could it be? If that is the case, what should I look for on the phone to try to get rid of it. Is there such a thing as a virus scanner for android OS?
Thanks

I would factory data reset the phone and format the internal and external SD card. Then set phone up with a new Gmail account if it was me. Some apps on the plays store look legitimate but could have permission to do weird things while the phone is not in use. Hope you can help your Mom.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda app-developers app

Teknodad1974 said:
I would factory data reset the phone and format the internal and external SD card. Then set phone up with a new Gmail account if it was me. Some apps on the plays store look legitimate but could have permission to do weird things while the phone is not in use. Hope you can help your Mom.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the advice. The odd thing is that I just did this to her phone like 4 weeks ago because she inexplicably had TONNES of data charges on her phone, and he has a 6GB/month plan. That seemed to have solved that...I'm pretty sure someone was manipulating her phone at that point too because there was no way she was using that much data on her own.
She must have something going on. Something she's installed must be giving someone access or something, I don't know what's up but I will backup all her SMS and notepad messages, and make sure her contacts are synced with Google then factory reset her phone, again.
Thanks.

Related

Data problems

So Im having data issues today i wanna really exchange it Monday but Im afraid if i do il have screen issues right now data will work halfway and i have to keep refreshing the page til it finally loads its horrible but Im afraid to exchange it cause people that are havih the screen problems i have a problem at the upper top looks llike dead piles its a very light spot but usually only seen while on the camera app or when its turned on
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using XDA App
If you think about the number of phones that are out there and people only generally post when there's an issue, I wouldn't worry about exchanging it. I've had two phones with no issues.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using xda premium
Okay i might go exchange it Monday cause its an hour away to the closest one
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using XDA App
today I backed up my iphone SMSs and loaded them with sms backup and restore... everything went fine, but then my phone reset and there is a circle with a line through it where the data connection icon should be and says there is no sim installed.... I also cant dial out, but I received a call on the way home from work.
trying to open message app on the phone gives me a time out message and asks me to kill or wait. then the phone just freezes. I'm looking everywhere for a solution... first time android user so this is driving me a little bit nutty.
on my iphone I would just restore firmware... I guess thats what I should try here?
Kadernal said:
today I backed up my iphone SMSs and loaded them with sms backup and restore... everything went fine, but then my phone reset and there is a circle with a line through it where the data connection icon should be and says there is no sim installed.... I also cant dial out, but I received a call on the way home from work.
trying to open message app on the phone gives me a time out message and asks me to kill or wait. then the phone just freezes. I'm looking everywhere for a solution... first time android user so this is driving me a little bit nutty.
on my iphone I would just restore firmware... I guess thats what I should try here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you done any type of changes to the phone like rooting, etc.? Anything you can think of that might have caused it or changed something right before it happened?
No, I haven't rooted or anything. All I did was download a few basic apps and then try to transfer my data to the new phone. I ordered a jig and don't want to do anything until it arrives.
I have solved the data issue, somehow the sim came slightly out of place. Once I reseated everything was good. is the sim slot that finicky?
i also did a factory reset and started from scratch and worked out the issue with the text messages. I appreciated your willingness to help a noob, thank you.

Data won't work please help

Got my sgs2 yesterday, had the Sim put in, data worked fine. Took it out and put it in my captivate so I could charge my new phone, and data worked fine there too. But now putting it back in my new phone it gets signal but no data.d. I've checked all the settings, I have packet data enabled, even tried roaming. Also rebooted several times. Any ideas or suggestions?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using XDA App
In the status bar at the to what do you see, is there an H+ with two arrows below it?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using XDA App
re: no data
crag11 said:
Got my sgs2 yesterday, had the Sim put in, data worked fine. Took it out and put it in my captivate so I could charge my new phone, and data worked fine there too. But now putting it back in my new phone it gets signal but no data.d. I've checked all the settings, I have packet data enabled, even tried roaming. Also rebooted several times. Any ideas or suggestions?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this, go into settings>privacy>factory data reset> select that and it
will delete any apps you have downloaded/installed and it will format and
use all the default settings the phone had when you first purchased the phone.
It will format your internal sdcard and reset the phone.
If you have any mp3's, pictures or videos on the phone
right now you may want to copy all of that stuff to your
computer first.
Misterjunky said:
Try this, go into settings>privacy>factory data reset> select that and it
will delete any apps you have downloaded/installed and it will format and
use all the default settings the phone had when you first purchased the phone.
It will format your internal sdcard and reset the phone.
If you have any mp3's, pictures or videos on the phone
right now you may want to copy all of that stuff to your
computer first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That only wipes and resets the system and data partitions, it won't touch the sdcard, but you should have all of everything important to you backed up before you try anything encase something gets corrupted.
That said I would do some more trouble shooting on your signal and connection before you start doing things like this.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using XDA App
crag11 said:
Got my sgs2 yesterday, had the Sim put in, data worked fine. Took it out and put it in my captivate so I could charge my new phone, and data worked fine there too. But now putting it back in my new phone it gets signal but no data.d. I've checked all the settings, I have packet data enabled, even tried roaming. Also rebooted several times. Any ideas or suggestions?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may actually want to call AT&T and tell them you're not getting any data connection. I had that happen to me when I got my previous phone before my gs2 and again when I got my gs2. It probably still shows the captivate provisioned to the network for your data side of the line.
They will tell you to turn off the phone then remove the battery and sim card. Then they will do their thing and tell you to put back in the sim card and battery and turn the phone back on. It should work after that.

Data connection problems

Hey guys.
Tonight has been a very frustrating night overall.
I'll write my current problem here, so that those who can help can reply right away, below you can find a summary of the nights problems.
I can't get mobile data to work. It says its on if I go into settings, but I get no connection. If I add the widget in motoblur and try to toggle it, it says "Mobile Data is unavailable", and nothing else. Any solutions..? I have rebooted phone several times, as well as removed SIM card and put it back.
Long story:
I uninstalled Launcher7 today since I wanted to use something more "regular" before the release of the european ICS. After uninstalling it and fiddling around with Moto Home Fix to get the phone to even recognize that I have a default launcher, it got stuck in airplane mode. There was just no getting it out of it. Eventually I got so pissed of I just factory reset the phone. Now I have normal radio, and Wifi, but no Data connection. The error it gives is "Mobile data is unavailable" when I try to widget-toggle it.
If I go the long way in settings it says its on. Do I need to do something in the first time setup before it starts working? Its been so long I dont remember. I have registered my google account.
Please guys, help!
Do you have Verizon? I know in the Play store there is an app by Verizon to fix mobile data connection problems.
Sent from my DROID RAZR Maxx using XDA Premium
No, I have Tele2/Comviq, a Scandinavian operator.
However it seems that when I uninstalled the launcher it also cleared all my APN-settings. Which was.. A whole bunch that I manually entered. Oh well, guess that servers me right for not keeping a backup.
Will report this to the Launcher7 author, even though I doubt he'll do anything since its been a long time since last update.

Any progress with that "loosing connection to google services" problem?

Ever since I got my first Android device (Galaxy Nexus) I had the problem that Gmail and Google Talk just often won't notify me about new messages. It works fine sometimes but often there is a delay between a few seconds and several hours until it finally notifies me (if at all that is).
It's basically freaking useless. I just can't rely on it so I end up checking for messages and mail manually every few minutes.
Things that don't affect the problem:
Device and Android Version. Plenty of people reported this problem and it's just not limited to one device or version.
If the screen is turned off or not. It even stops working while Talk is open (not in the background).
How the phone connects to the internet. At home it's using the same connection as my PC, while it just won't notify me of an new e-mail the Talk client on the PC manages it without problems.
ROM/Kernel don't seem matter either. Also did plenty of factory resets.
All I can find are old and/or unanswered threads.
Like those:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1673579
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=22570
I'd have ditched Android by now if there would be a good alternative. But it's either Android, iOS or Windows Phone...
Sign out of google talk and gmail.do a battery pull, then a factory reset, then try again.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium
my advice. backup what you need(ie. text messages) and just clear data, revert to stock image
LORDFIRE00 said:
Sign out of google talk and gmail.do a battery pull, then a factory reset, then try again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't really get how this could help. Don't feel like doing yet another reset unless it could really have an effect.
-DarkKnight- said:
my advice. backup what you need(ie. text messages) and just clear data, revert to stock image
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ROM and Kernel don't seem to matter. That includes for example stock, Cyanogen and franco kernel.
Did a factory reset like 100 times before, just this time logged out first. Didn't help, how unexpected.
Another option, contact sprint, have them do a. Profile refresh. Also update ur prl twice. Now that I think about, it could be a slight network issue in connection with ur device (hard to explain)
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium
I'm in Europe. No sprint here.
I'll replace my Nexus with an S III today. Guess I'm about to find out if it's affected too.
Will probably be hard to do any further tests with the Nexus because my SIM is going to have a little meeting with a scissor.
Didn't get too many messages yet but some of them were definitely several minutes late. Guess the S III is affected too. Just great.
Am I the only person with this problem?
Still happening and renders the phone mostly useless.
At least some ideas on how to pinpoint the problem?

random factory reset, full data loss?

Was out earlier today, all Was fine with my phone, and never had an issue before. Then next thing I know I take my phone out of my Pocket and everything is in chinese, and apps gone, same widget setup as it came from the factory. I tried rebooting and changing the language to english. Also noticed that terms/privacy policy Was not already checked as usual (I got the phone from Taiwan a few months back and havent put a sim in it yet, just using on wifi, so it asks me for language/terms every time I reboot, but it has never been a problem in the past)
Everything is gone now, pics, videos, apps, and all data, even files I saved in folders I created myself in internal storage. I dont think I could havent "butt dialed" that sequence of commnds, especially since you have to select an extra setting if you want internal storage to be wiped during factory reset (I think). Possible but not likely...anyone else seen this? And more importantly is there anything I can do to get my data back?? I lost all pics from the vacation we're on and a ton of pics of my kids and family... I'm hoping its just some profile switch function IM not aware of, but I doubt it since storage space is all free now
One other interesting thing, google loaded and havent searc results in chinese, even after I selected English. phone UI did change successfully, but for same reason google still thinks I want chinese.
That doesnt sound normal
Try flashing a FTF with flashtool (flashtool.net)
See if it happens again, your firmware may not have been written right during manufacturing of your device
Sent from my D6503 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
You don't want to flash anything if you want any chance of getting your data back, you need to stop using it and run a data recovery program as soon as you can, more chance of getting some of your data back
Mr.R™ said:
You don't want to flash anything if you want any chance of getting your data back, you need to stop using it and run a data recovery program as soon as you can, more chance of getting some of your data back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that's what I was thinking. Outside of the initial investigation, I pretty much stopped using the phone altogether and shut it off. I'm still on vacation so I haven't tried any recovery apps yet. My phone is not rooted currently, does anyone have any recommendations on the best recovery tool to use in that case? The first one I checked out was Dr. Fone, as well as an app based tool, but that one required root access. I'm hoping the most effective tools don't require root, as I don't want to mess up my chances of getting my data back during the rooting process.
As long as your computer recognises it you can use any recovery tool that supports flash memory via your pc
Mr.R™ said:
As long as your computer recognises it you can use any recovery tool that supports flash memory via your pc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah that's good to know, thanks. I tried using a few android specific ones last night. Dr Fone connected to my phone and started installing drivers I think, then just crapped out. The other one (Tenoshare i think) made it all the way to scanning (it said it didn't recognize my phone model, but let me continue anyeway), but the process hung during the scan. When I restarted it, it told me I needed to root my phone, which is weird since it let me scan before...
I'll keep digging around, hope I can find something that works!
EDIT:
Finally decided to root it since I was having no luck, and that did help for a few of the apps. Unfortunately it seems the only recoverable data is the stuff I had already backed up to the card. No photos or videos taken after that come up, which also seems very strange to me... I have no idea what happened, one minute everything was normal, the next it was like I just picked it up fresh out of the box : /

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