How to Tell If Your Phone Is Tapped: 7 Warning Signs (2024)

How can you tell if your phone is tapped? Many parties can tap into your smartphone, including hackers, your employer, an ex-partner, the government, or even the press. They might be listening to your calls, reading and sending messages and emails, or altering information on your interface. But how do you know if your phone is tapped?

Has Your Cell Phone Been Tapped?

There are a few ways to tell if your cell phone has been tapped, notably:

• Battery problems: Is your handset getting too hot? Has your data usage increased? These could be signs that data is being sent to a third party. If you use Android, you can at least check data forwarding using codes like *#21*.
• Poor performance: Are you seeing unwanted ads? Have you spotted apps that you can't remember downloading? Hackers could be interfering with your interface, even changing the appearance of websites.
• Strange messages: If you've received odd messages on your smartphone, they're not necessarily spam. It could be a fault in the spyware that's letting you see instructions sent from and to hackers. If your phone sends odd text messages to contacts too, the malware might be trying to spread to other people's devices.

Do these signs ring a bell? Here's how to tell if your cell phone is tapped.

1. Battery Problems

Does your smartphone get hot? Using numerous apps and consuming media makes your handset warmer, though not enough to cause damage or shut itself down. Watching videos consumes a greater percentage of your battery than listening to songs or podcasts, for instance. So yes, your battery can be a problem, regardless of whether your phone's been tapped or not.

Nevertheless, a hot battery can be a sign of cell phone tapping. Malicious software could be running in the background, allowing someone else to listen in. And be suspicious if your phone simply won't hold charge.

Monitor your phone: remember which apps you've used and how they affect your battery. If it consistently runs low on battery, don't ignore the issue. Older handsets don't hold a charge like newer models do, so you need to eliminate other possibilities before looking for nefarious purposes.

Take note of other reasons your handset might be hot. Have you been sunbathing with it? Have you been using lots of apps consecutively? Is a case locking heat in?

High temperatures and low power can nonetheless indicate malicious software. You should then look out for other signs that your phone is being tapped.

2. Increased Mobile Data Usage

Keeping a close eye on your phone bills can save you a lot of cash. But it can also help you spot spyware.

Countless apps use huge amounts of data, especially if you don't connect to free public Wi-Fi. Still, you should know roughly how much data you use each month.

If this amount increases dramatically, you need to narrow down exactly why—it might be that a third party is intercepting your messages.

Malicious software uses your data allowance to send information it's collected to an outside source. That means it's not solely relying on your home Wi-Fi: it's consuming data wherever you are.

3. Unwanted Ads and Apps

You need to know exactly what's on your phone, especially any apps running in the background. If you've not installed an app, it could be malicious.

Your phone doesn't have to be jailbroken to download fake apps: fraudulent apps have been spotted on official stores, including adware that presented malicious ads to users. Adware can be used to gather data and open a backdoor to hackers, inviting the installation of further malware. These ads could become intrusive to encourage victims to click on them and generate revenue on a pay-per-click basis.

Clicking on links can lead to more malware, which can generate a lot of ad traffic and increase data usage further.

You can reduce the risk of infection by only downloading from official app stores. Apple and Google screen apps and games before letting them become available to the masses, and though they sometimes mess up, that's rare.

4. General Performance Issues

The more data used, the slower your device will be. Malware can gain root access to your smartphone or trick you into downloading a fake system update to completely dominate your activities. Information about you could then be transmitted to the hackers' external servers.

Think of all that information being transmitted to and from your device. You might think slowing down is a case of your handset getting old, but you'll suffer performance lags whatever method a cybercriminal uses to bug your phone.

Of course, real apps will take up power, but they shouldn't noticeably affect your device's reaction time.

You can check which apps are using the most RAM. On iOS, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage. On Android, click Settings > Apps and swipe over to Running. You'll probably see Photos and Music near the top of the list. From here, you can assess your app usage and check for anything that doesn't ring true.

5. Strange Messages Can Indicate Phone Tapping

What you might pass off as spam, a nuisance, or a wrong number can be an alert that your phone is being spied upon.

Suspicious SMS could include a seemingly random series of digits, characters, and symbols that immediately strike you as odd but perhaps not especially malicious.

Don't ignore suspicious messages.

If spyware hasn't been installed properly, coded messages will appear in your inbox that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. These random data sets are instructions sent from a hacker's servers to tamper with the fraudulent app. Alternatively, the app could be trying to contact its creator.

Likewise, if family or friends say you're sending them bizarre texts or emails, your phone may be compromised. This could mean your infected phone is trying to install malware on the devices of your loved ones.

Keep an eye out for any activity you don't recognize. Look at messaging chains and social media profiles, and check your sent folder and outbox. If you can't remember sending something, be suspicious.

6. Websites Look Different

Clicking on a URL in a text or email, even by mistake, can cost you big bucks. You don't have to be redirected to a fraudulent link through a message. If there's a malicious app on your phone, it could alter the appearance of websites you frequent.

The malware acts as a proxy, intercepting communications between you and the site you're trying to visit. It might present a false page to you or track anything you type. And no, it doesn't matter if you're on Private Browsing.

This is a big problem if you're using online banking—or anything that requires personal details. That could be a password, financial details, or Personally Identifiable Information (PII), a major currency on the dark web.

You might not notice any differences. They could solely be minor changes, like pixelated logos. And if you do see something strange, it could just be the website experimenting with a new interface. Compare the mobile version with that displayed on a PC, bearing in mind responsive themes look slightly different.

7. Use Android Forwarding Codes Like *#21#

This only works on phones running Android, but it's the perfect way to find out whether any of your data is being forwarded to a third party. You can use secret USSD codes to maintain your security and privacy.

Go to your keypad interface and type in either *#21*, *#67#, or *#62#, then tap the dial icon. If one doesn't work, try another. They're applicable to different devices, but all three have the same function: they direct you to a screen that details Call Forwarding.

It will list Voice calls, Data, SMS, Packet, PAD, and more. Ideally, each one should say "Not forwarded" afterward. If any instead say "Forwarded", your smartphone's probably been hacked.

So what can you do? Just type ##002# into your dial screen then press the dial symbol again. Your screen should now read "Erasure was successful", meaning you've severed the cyberattack. You can navigate away from this screen by tapping OK.

That's not the end of the matter: if your device has been tapped, it's obviously susceptible to attacks, so check out ways to increase Android security, including downloading an antivirus app.