Possible Stalker please read

Bridget

I currently rent a room and believe the guy downstairs is spying on me. I believe he cloned my phone or installed spyware. He had access to my phone because I let him charge it. I didn’t have a clue, so here I am. I have factory reset my phone and it is still happening. Many details in crash reports and personal details of information he seems to know have lead to my suspicions. My new battery dies quickly, phone gets hot, data is 10x my family member’s usage, etc. This is what I found on his devices today. Is this normal? Also a new device read oneplus7t.home was on the list. I have an IPhone and I think it’s jailbroken. I have felt watched through my camera and have become afraid to be honest. I feel like I am going crazy. I will contact the police if necessary but don’t want to overreact. Thanks for you help!

kltaylor

HI @Bridget, welcome to our community.

In any situation that could escalate into a legal situation, we encourage you to contact your local authorities if you feel threatened in any way.  However, be prepared to present physical evidence to back up your claim.

With that being said though, one of the first questions that I have would be 'does your neighbor know technology, works in a technology field, etc.  If you answer no to any of those, chances are if he were to spy on you his level of knowledge would be quite superficial.  Meaning that with you resetting your phone to factory defaults would eliminate that possibility.  Does this person know your security PIN or Passcode to the phone?  Issuing a factory reset also tells me that the phone isn't jailbroken, or at least a huge percentage chance that it's not.

Is there a possibility of obtaining a new phone?  Take your iPhone to a Mac brick-and-mortar store to ask them to run a diagnostic on it?  iOS has had issues with their batteries in several devices, if it becomes warm, you should have it checked.

The screenshots above don't raise any proverbial 'red flags' to say that it could be used to spy on you.  Search the app store to find applications that can lock your phone's camera and microphone, they exist in an Android world so I assume it would assume there as well.

Please though, stay calm and above all stay safe.

Bridget

Thank you for responding 😊 Yes this person is in the technology field and very smart. We share “common areas” in the rental house that neither of us own. Cameras are everywhere outside and in the common areas. I was not aware of this when I signed the lease. I am not a paranoid person and truly think before reacting. My gut is telling me that something is not right. I hope I’m wrong but I have to do something. Thank you for your input.

kltaylor

Have you thought about obtaining a new phone?  Maybe take it to a Mac specialist and see if they can see anything on it?  Admittedly I am a Windows engineer and could lead you better if that was the medium.  

I'd go through your accounts and things and change the password to something robust and only you would know.  Using a common word for a password can be easily guessed or hacked, so start with that and let's see what happens from there.

Bridget

@kltaylor I think I am going to start over completely with a new email, phone number, etc. I have had the same number for a long time and I get lots of calls looking for different people. It’s probably time to “clean house” in many areas of my life! Ugh I wish people would just behave! Lol Thanks again

Johnk

Hi bridget,

I'm really sorry that you have this potential security breach.

One thing I might suggest is to take a moment to leave everything as it is and do a little more digging before switching everything. The reason I say this is so that you can have either 1) the confirmation that you weren't being hacked with the piece piece mind that comes with it, or 2) the confirmation that this f#ker was in your stuff. If that happened, you want to know what he has, and probably call the police. If he did it once, he'll try again. So, it might be more valuable to confirm for that reason.

Even fb, better to catch him with a logged in device before you kick him off by changing the password.

Let's hope that didn't happen, though.

Still, (And this would apply even with new passwords/devices) if you don't trust everyone with access to the same router you're using, it's best to connect directly to a VPN and turn off all file sharing.

Johnk

As to your question regarding those services: those are mostly windows subsystem connections. Netbios and msrpc are common enough, but could be used to remotely access a machine that is connected on the same network.

Netbios is usually just a printer or it might be a camera, but it's a vulnerable port for that host. Hackers could probably gain access to windows machines on that host if the machine leaves port 139 open.

NvrEngh

 newer phones have settings that allow the WIFI and Cellular service to work all the time - I found that out when my google pixel 2xl used 75 gigs in a few days.  Verify your apps and may want to get rid of some of the ones that use data in the background, also Try turning phone off for extended periods of time, see if he physically contacts you.  But bottom line is if you feel somethings wrong, good chance there is.  But common info and things in a shared environment aren't hard to get as overhearing phone calls, observations, and simple net searches and social media are also quite common ways people learn about others and especially in a close quarters environment.  Also factory resetting is great but re-signing in and restoring an old back up did you no good if it was there prior.

Tin_Man

While a new phone might help, I'd advise upping the security of your "cloud". Increase the security settings for your apple and or gmail/yahoo/hotmail accounts to require something called 2 factor authentication. That should keep intruders out pretty effectively. As far as your phone, for piece of mined, have the guys at the genius bar take a look  at it and reset it with a complete overwrite with stock firmware that they will have at the store. Between those two things, your digital privacy should be pretty well covered and locked. However, stalker dude may not have any kind of active spying on you, he could have simply copied whatever he could when he had your phone. Not much you can do about that, except let time make it irrelevant.

LayllahT

The best way to ensure Jackoff Stalker can't interfere with any of your toys also the most economical as opposed to buying new phones, computers and or smart devices is to Buy A Router like a Netgear Nighthawk R7000 ($45) Download Kong Mod DD-WRT Flash the router so Netgear doesn't have access! Go the Nordvpn spend ($79) for three years of VPN Service Follow Nords instruct to setup you VPN Router! The awesome thing about the Nord account is you can put 5 devices on the same account no extra cost! That means you can run 5 routers that hypothetically support up to 128 devices per router!!!! The aforementioned means all computers and phones + smart devices will be encrypted, Mr stalker will never penetrate anything you own ever again. If your feeling vengeful leave your ISP's router broadcasting so he tries to hack into that network which will record his access then have him arrested!! Oh forgot you can also run Nord VPN APP on your Iphone so you'll be Double-VPN That's an impossible hack and he'll never see your devices again! 

Benicetoyourpets

I definitely want to get a VPN. I’m not tech savvy at all but we have had weird shit happen to my bf and I lately. Our roommates are trying to catch us doing something who knows what but we have heard them in the back yard so we got cameras

LayllahT

The problem with camera's without VPN is the feeds aren't secure! If you can afford that router and NordVpn I'll send steps 1-20 instructions and the software! The beauty off the VPN is your camera's, TV, Computers, Alexa devices would be encrypted. Nobody can see what your equipment is up to! Without knowing who your ISP is I'd be guessing their policies, know this If they see you streaming or downloading they'll cut your service. There's one other way If all your devices are Bluetooth you can set up a PAN Network which mean Personal Area Network, Why? Cell phones use GSM 5-6 encryption which is a very hard hack doubtful anyone will try, As for his Cameras get six laser pens tape them together, DURING THE DAY beam the lasers at the camera lens it'll deactivate them permanently! Stalker idiot will think they burned out LOL! By the way I've done all the aforementioned and it workout great. My ex-neighbor hates women I was the only one in the 4 apartment building. This man threatened to kill me yelling through our front door, kicked the door panel on my Benz CLK320 (1st day I bought it.), slit a tire as written up by my tire guy. let himself into my Apt move things to my bed like soap? His brother was our landlord. I couldn't take it anymore so I did all the things I recommended you do.  10 cameras inside and out! Caught him being a Jerk on video called the police and watched them tell him "If she calls about you again YOU'RE GOING TO JAIL!"! It was vindication at its best!!

Bridget

Thank you so much!

adam

@Bridget you said "Many details in crash reports and personal details of information he seems to know have lead to my suspicions". Can you give some more details on this? What does he know, what has he said thst makes you say this?