Reformat same as restore for iphone bug removal?

[somebodywatchingme]

1) I saw your forum. Very cool and much help. I have an iphone and Im 99% sure my x who is abusive is spying on me. When you say reformat the phone to rid of spyware.....is that the same as restoring my own iphone putting it back to factory settings. I can do this without reinstalling the back up. Will that work?

2) Also if i am being spied on , can I simply take my sim card out of my iphone and use an old phone i have or is the spyware attached to the sim card.

3) Thank you very much in advance. I know my iphone was switched out one day as I had a replacement phone sent trying to rid of spyware.....suddenly one day i noticed my phone looked old and damaged, the screen cracked etc.....the same night my phone was switched back to my new phone again....all I can think of is he couldnt get past my lock so took the sim card and placed in another phone to download or mess with my phone thinking I wouldnt notice the switch in one day........Im not real tech savy but have tried to figure this thing out. I have excesive data/media internet usage sent out almost hourly all thru the night and day(Only states PHONE, no number listed as with normal data.......i never even use my data or internet, my phone blinks etc...after he calls me demanding me to be sure to leave my phone "on" so he can reach me. Does my phone need to be on to sync to another phone?

Gosh. can you please help me? Thank you so much.

[spyphoneguy]

Hi Somebodywatchingme,

It sure sounds like you have something on your iPhone. The sure way to find out is if you can verify your iPhone is unlocked/jailbroken. If it is, then based on what you said, you almost definitely have spy software installed. See my answers below to each of your questions.

1) When you say "restore to factory settings" do you mean reverting the phone back to being a locked phone? Or do you mean simply changing your settings to factory defaults? If for example, your phone was locked and now its unlocked, then locking your phone will remove anything, in fact if your iPhone is locked, the possibilities of any type of spy software / app on your iPhone is very slim because spy phone software requires that your iPhone be unlocked.. I know the iPhone has a new update out (3.1.3), so you might want to upgrade to this version because some of the good iPhone spy software will hide the fact that your iPhone is unlocked.

However, going back to my question about being locked, if your phone is unlocked, and you simply just restore to factory defaults, the software will remain on your phone.

2) If you take your SIM card out and put it in another phone, then you will be ok. Although there is spyware out there that can embed itself on a SIM card, this is very hard to get and it's traditionally used more by hackers who want to steal data versus someone who wants to monitor you. None of the commercial spy software sold by the companies such as Flexispy, Mobile Spy, etc.. have anything that will install on a SIM card, so removing the SIM card is also a safe approach.

3) Unusual internet/data usage is a sure sign that your iPhone has spyware installed. This is of course you dont have any of your email accounts set up in your iPhone to fetch hourly, 15 minutes, 30 minutes etc. Also check to see if your 'Push' settings are turned on. Just go to Settings ->Mail,Contacts, Calendars -> and scrolll down to where it says Fetch New Data. Click on that and turn off Push.

If you do have 'Push' turned off, then I don't see why you would have excessive data usage other "possibly" having spy software installed.

In summary, if your iPhone is locked, then you are ok, but I'd still upgrade to the latest firmware. If your iPhone is unlocked, and based on what you said to me, your iPhone most likely has spy software installed if you can verify that all your 'Push' notifications are turned off. Since the spy software resides on the iPhone and not on the SIM card, switching phones is your best choice.

Hope this helps. I sort of rambled on a bit, so if I didnt make sense with anything, post a reply and I'll clear anything up.

SPG

[somebodywatchingme]

Wow! Thanks so much for the info.

1) I bought my first phone new from Apple. 2nd was a replacement phone from AT&T because I told them the screen flashed. I restored both to factory settings when I suspected a bug. I'm not sure how to tell if my phone is jail broken. Don’t mean to sound ignorant but I've never done anything to either phone so would I know if someone else had jail broken it? How can I tell now?

2) I tried taking out my sim and placing it in my old razor....suddenly the data stopped sending out. I waited a few days put sim back in iphone and data started sending again....so it must be on the phone itself as you said huh? I had tried replacing my sim with the replacement iphone just as a precaution and data still continued so I'm guessing it's on the phone.

3) I followed your instructions to check my fetch data...it was "ON" yet it was programmed for "manual fetch only". I turned it off. Do I need to check anywhere else on my phone or is that the only setting for data fetch? Ive never logged into email with the 2nd phone thinking it was bugged...and never go online....I just dont use it for any of that and never downloaded apps or anything on the replacement iphone......I did however do a test this weekend. I logged online which I never do...pulled up a website...about cars.....waited to see the data sent out the next day and it was huge.....as if it sent my site I had visited as well....totally guessing here? Now comes the interesting part.....I’ve never thought of this before (having a blonde moment) but my x had given me his password on his at&t account long ago (To prove he'd stopped cheating, yea right#!#@) anyway, I pulled up his data and he is receiving data the same time mine is being sent. So it's got to be him right? For example...it seems each time I send a text to anyone...usually my daughter, then the message is sent out 8 times or so....(when I'm physically only sending it one time) ...it shows his data online receiving 8 messages of data the exact same time......yet my phone number is not showing?

Question? If I send a text to him could it activate all my text for the day being sent out? Would this information be going to his actual phone or an online log in a website for him to track? That's where I'm a bit confused...unless it's notifying him of the text being sent and to log in somewhere to view? But that wouldn’t explain the large data to his phone if going to a website?

Would he need physical access to my phone again to remove the spyware? Or could he do this remotely? I do notice each time I speak with him on the phone my phone echoes as if there is radio interference. One time he asked me if I was in my car and he seemed to know where? I'm guessing it may have a gps as well? I'm assuming from what Ive been reading he could also be listening to my conversations which really couldn’t be to exciting but.....he asked me repeatedly to leave my phone on all night because he needed to call me first thing in the morning....it seemed odd and at about midnight I had huge data sent out I noticed?

Ok, so since I'm assuming it's him...I sent out a text to myself addressed to him. Saying the reason I left him was his physical abusive & temper that I have nothing to hide so spy all he wants. I notice I haven’t had any data sent from my account since this message sent and received to only myself yesterday.
Will see if it starts up again. So if I have my phone off would if prevent him from downloading, listening in or tracking with GPS?

So many questions and I am the one rambling here so forgive me. It's nice to throw these ideas past an expert so I really appreciate your help. I feel like Ive become my own PI and it is really scary and fascinating at the same time......One of those oddly pleasurable things? Go figure....
I will most likely get rid of my phone but would still like to understand how this all works. Thanks again.

My online phone data below: I notice the internet/media only shows phone. Text messages sent out 8 to 10 at a time show my number only sending out. =xxxxxxxbelow)
02/19 09:43 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 1KB 02/19 09:37 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 6KB 02/19 04:31 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 9KB 02/19 04:16 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 860KB 02/19 04:08 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 326KB 02/19 03:52 AM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 656KB>>
02/18 03:07 AM xxxxxxx Text/IM Messaging Sent 1Msg 02/18 03:07 AM xxxxxxx Text/IM Messaging Sent 1Msg 02/18 03:07 AM xxxxxxxx Text/IM Messaging Sent 1Msg 02/18 03:07 AM xxxxxxx Text/IM Messaging Sent 1Msg 02/18 03:07 AM xxxxxxxxx Text/IM Messaging Sent 1Msg 02/18 03:07 AM xxxxxxxx Text/IM Messaging Sent 1Msg 02/18 03:07 AM xxxxxxxxx Text/IM Messaging Sent 1Msg 02/17 09:56 PM xxxxxxxxx Multimedia Messaging Received 1Msg 02/17 08:40 PM xxxxxxxxx Text/IM Messaging Sent 1Msg 02/17 08:40 PM xxxxxxxxxx Text/IM Messaging Sent 1Msg 02/17 08:40 PM xxxxxxxx Text/IM Messaging Sent 1Msg 02/17 07:31 PMxxxxxxxxx Text/IM Messaging Sent 1Msg 02/17 07:18 PM xxxxxxxxx Multimedia Messaging Sent 1Msg 02/17 07:16 PM phone Internet/MEdia Net Sent 11KB 02/17 07:15 PM xxxxxxxxxx Text/IM Messaging Sent 1Msg