The bad actors of the world will design fake websites or will develop and release dubious apps all designed to access your most personal information on your phone, and will even use your phone to spread the virus to others (much like you would see on a virus on your computer).

But how can you tell if your cell phone has a virus? We have outlined for you what a cell phone virus is, and how to remove it for good!

Cell Phone Viruses?

There are three types of malware that can find their way on to your phone. Spyware, ransomware and the typical viruses that make up a third category. All of them have one goal in mind – to access your personal data, and use that data to attempt to steal your identity and commit fraud. There are some malwares that will go as far as to send SMS texts to services that charge fees or sell your information.

How Does Malware Get On My Phone

Phones don’t really get infected with viruses the same way that your PC or laptop might. Typically it’s as simple as visiting your app store or google play and downloading an app that has yet to be identified as malicious.

While iPhones certainly are susceptible to viruses Android phones are by far considered to be more vulnerable as Androids are considered ‘open source’, while the iOS phones are encrypted by default.

Does My Phone Have a Virus?

Here are a few signs to look for if you are worried that your phone might be infected by malware:

• Your phone’s battery is suddenly being used up much faster than it would normally.
• Pop up ads are suddenly appearing with more frequency.
• Long lag times for apps to load.
• Your phone seems much slower all together.
• You see apps that you don’t remember installing.
• You notice a big uptick in your data usage.
• Your phone bill is higher than expected.

Don’t panic right away if recognize one or two of these signs. It doesn’t necessarily mean you are infected, however a combination of these should put you on alert.

Removing a Virus From Your iPhone

While iPhones are less likely to get a virus when purchasing your phone from a major carrier, the jail broken iPhones have a much higher chance of infection. Here are the steps you can take:

• Immediately uninstall any suspicious apps. Any app that you installed prior to noticing issues, as well as any you do not recognize. Especially third party apps.
• Make sure to clear your browser history and data (this can be done by opening Safari and clearing history and data in the settings).
• Restart your iPhone
• Restore your iPhone with a backup you made prior to the issues.

Get professional from the Apple Genius Bar help if none of these steps seem to improve the issues you are seeing.

Removing a Virus From Your Android

Android phones are a lot more open to attacks and as such removing a virus can be a little more involved than an iPhone.

• Run a Virus Scan

  There are free options but we really suggest that you find a highly rated paid app. They will not be too expensive and will ensure you have a dev team behind the service.

• Safe Mode

  What you’ll also want to do is restart your device in safe mode and manually uninstall third-party apps. The reboot your phone. If you phone speeds up you’ve probably found the problem!

• Remove Access

  Some apps will require you to remove administrator access from them. Go to the “Security” tab in your Settings app. Then Deactivate (uncheck) the box that allows the app to access your phone.

• Restoring Factory Settings

  This will do it all. Clears data and apps that have been installed. It will also completely remove your files, so make sure you do a full backup before doing anything.

If you keep you phone regularly updated you make it very hard for hackers to take advantage of known bugs. A solid paid AntiVirus app should provide the protections needed, and is also important to keep updated. Most of these apps update their virus definitions fairly often.

Another good tip that most of us fail to do is to avoid using unsecured Wi-Fi. When you connect in public you are trusting that the connection is a trusted one. That’s ridiculous, malicious people are everywhere. Use your data plan or simply wait for a secured connection.

Last but not least Always use a secure password and every few months change it up. Some of our most personal data is within our phones. Let’s keep it protected!

The post Cell Phone Virus Removal Tips appeared first on CheckPeople Blog.

But the good news is you don’t require a burner phone or even any kind of new technology at all. With most telecom providers it’s as easy as entering a few digits before the phone number you are calling.

Here’s how to make your phone number known when making phone calls.

Making A One-Time Private Call From Your Phone

As stated previously most telecom carriers make it as easy as entering just a few digits to temporarily making your number unknown for the call you are wanting to make. The universal prefix is *67. To make the private call you simply enter *67 before the number you are dialing (example: *67-1-555-555-5555).

This will work on most landlines and cell phones. However, some carriers may have different codes.

AT&T uses #31# for example to make a private call. Similar to above you just enter that prior to the number you are dialing and your number will be temporarily unknown for the call. Although in some areas it’s still *67. So the best way to test this is with a friend to see which one works with your carrier.

How to Make All Outbound Calls Private

Some service providers let you set this up as an option through their service websites and alternatively you can also change settings on your cell phones. Here are a few methods for you to try.

Verizon Customers

• Open the “My Verizon” App
• Tap “Devices” and Select the Device You Want to Make Private
• Tap “Controls” and select “Adjust service blocks”
• Toggle “Block Caller ID”

Sprint Customers

• Access your “My Sprint” account through the website or app.
• Select the device you want to have an unknown number.
• Select “Change my services” and toggle the “block caller ID” option.

IPhone Users

• Tap the “Settings” icon and scroll down to the “phone” tab.
• Select “Show my caller ID”.
• Toggle the switch from green to white to make your number unknown on all outgoing calls.

Android Users:

• Tap the “settings” icon on the home screen.
• Select “device” and scroll down to “call settings”
• Tap “voice call” and highlight “additional settings”
• Select “caller ID” and toggle “hide number”

Protecting Your Communication Privacy

It’s wise to be concerned with your communication privacy. You certainly aren’t alone. Studies have shown that 75$ of Americans say that it is very important to them that they stay in control of their personal information. While not all data can be protected, there are steps you can take to ensure you have the best protection possible.

• PASSWORD PROTECT EVERYTHING –

  You’d be surprised how many of us walk around with our phones unlocked. In today’s world that is simply not a good idea, and while you are at it, you should go ahead and enable remote tracking, so if your phone IS ever stolen you can remote wipe it and track it.

• BE YOUR OWN BOUNCER –

  Just don’t answer the unknown and blocked calls. If they were legitimate they would be calling from a recognized or business number. Let it roll to voicemail. This goes for emails as well. If you don’t know who it’s from, it has nothing you want.

• MAKE PRIVATE CALLS –

  Whether you are making a call to a business for the first time, or maybe to someone you’ve just met online, start with a private call so you aren’t giving up any of your personal information. Wait until you have built some kind of relationship (be it business or personal).

It’s up to us to protect ourselves from the nasties in the world. We can’t always rely on others to do it for us. Take steps to protect your data and you can do your best to ensure you remain in control of your privacy.

The post Make A Private Call: How To Block Your Phone Number appeared first on CheckPeople Blog.

Well a few days go by and you start noticing a your battery seems to be needing more juice and your data usage is hitting the ceiling. Frustrating? Of course! But this may be a sign that your phone has been hacked!

How Your Phone Can Be Hacked

Alright first of all. Why are you letting your child download apps on to your phone at his or her discretion, or doing so indiscriminately yourself!? This puts your phone at a big risk of malware! Malware is software that may look like a legitimate app (games, news etc.), but is in fact designed to gain access to your phone and/or files. This leaves you wide open to hackers to use your data to go for a shopping spree or make copies of all your account and personal data. In some cases, they may even get access to your bank as a result!

Bank accounts are often linked to your phone number. Not only that, it is often how your bank does its verification. How many times have you gotten a text verification from a bank or another type of account?

A hacker can also then put spyware on your phone. This type of malware can access things like your location, your movements and even in some cases the camera and microphone on your phone. In theory, hackers can take pictures of you getting into the shower in the morning if the situation is just right. Kind of scary!

80% of Americans now own a smartphone. This is up from 35% in just 2011! As a result, experts say that the threat of a phone hacks is on the rise. The more pray, the more hunters.

How To Know You’ve Been Hacked

So many frustrating things can start happening to your phone. Maybe your phone won’t let you get rid of unwanted apps. Or perhaps it won’t let you shut down or is crashing over and over again. Does this mean you’ve been hacked? It could, but it could also be a number of other issues. However, these can be important breadcrumbs on your way to discovering that you have in fact been hacked. If multiple behaviors on this list are happening at once there is a chance you have been infiltrated by malware or another malicious script.

Signs Your Phone Maybe Under Someone Else’s Control:

Data Spiking.

When you are noticing unwarranted data usage spikes in your plan that is a tell-tale sign that someone else has control of your phone!

Ads On Ads On Ads.

Are you getting an abnormal amount of pop up ads? Are they happening even when you aren’t using an app? Are you seeing them even when on government websites? If so, something is up!

Strange Browser Activity.

Are you all of a sudden seeing new icons or tools added to your browsers bar that weren’t there before? That could be very suspicious.

Activity You Don’t Recognize.

Does your phone say you’ve been to sites that you in fact haven’t? If you are seeing activity that you yourself did not do then you for sure have a problem!

What To Do When Your Phone is Hacked

All signs point to you having hacker taking advantage of your data usage and your activity. This can get expensive fast! Especially if your data is limited. So you may now be thinking “Well great I’ve been hacked, so what do I do to fix this?!” Well keep your pants on. It might not be as bad as it seems. In fact it might just be more of an inconvenience than an outright emergency.

Here are a few things you can do:

If your phone has stopped working:

• Step 1 is always to immediately contact your mobile carrier. A customer representative can help walk you through what happened and what the current status of your plan and phone are. Alerting them to this activity is important in case someone tries to cancel your plan and get a new phone shipped to them (pretending to be you). They will likely have you go into a store location.
• Security is important. Log into your mobile account and change your password as well as any extra features you may have set like your pin code.
• Report the theft on the FTC’s (Federal Trade Commission) IdentityTheft.gov website. You will receive instructions for issuing a fraud alert and checking your credit report.

If your phone still works but is acting strangely:

• Immediately Stop Using it to Shop or Bank or do anything that requires you to use or enter your sensitive data (passwords included!)
• IMPORTANT: Update ALL software. Then scan for viruses and spyware. If this is tricky for you to do yourself get help! The company where you got your phone may be able to help you with this for FREE.
• If you think some of your sensitive data was compromised. You may want to do what is called a “Factory Reset”. Every phone has a walk through on how to perform a factory reset. Just Google “Factory Reset for _____” and enter the phone type in the space. You will find step by step instructions for EVERY phone. Email yourself your photos and other files you want to keep. Don’t copy them over and do NOT give your phone access to a Dropbox account or google drive or anything of that nature. Emailing them is safer.
• File a complaint with the FTC and report it to your local police.
• Monitor your personal data with CheckPeople to see if it may have been breached.

The post Has Your Phone Been Hacked? appeared first on CheckPeople Blog.