Scam Messages Are on the Rise in India: How to Recover a Hacked Phone

Scam messages have been on the rise especially post pandemic. There are several messages that are being sent with malicious links embedded within them, which take control of the victim’s phone once the link is clicked on. Recently, the Government of India’ fact check handle PIB said: “Many fraudulent sites impersonating as government websites try to dupe people by offering jobs under fake schemes. Beware of online phishing attacks and never share your personal details with anyone.”

The handle also alerted users on a fake message wherein seamsters are impersonating as SBI officials, while stating that the recipient's YONO account has been blocked. “Never respond to emails/SMS asking to share your banking details. If you receive any similar message, report it immediately to - report.phishing@sbi.co.in" said the tweet alerting citizens. However, despite these warnings bad elements continue to wreak havoc and are even capable of hacking into smartphones. So what must one do if their phone gets hacked?

How to Stay Safe From Scam Messages and Recover a Hacked Phone

In case a phone has been hacked, immediate action should be taken to minimize the damage and protect personal information. Here are some steps one can take to recover a hacked phone:

Change  passwords: Users must change passwords for all their accounts including email, social media, and banking or anything else that was accessed from the phone. Remove suspicious apps: 

Removing any suspicious apps or malware from the phone: Any app that was not installed by the owner of the phone must immediately be deleted.

Updating operating systems: The phone's operating system has to be up-to-date as hackers often exploit vulnerabilities in older versions of operating systems.

Install antivirus software: Installing a reputable antivirus software on the phone and running a full scan to detect and remove any malicious software is a necessary step.

Backup data: All important data must be backed up to a secure location. This can help recover any lost data if one needs to factory reset their phone.

Factory reset the phone: If the phone still looks compromised, a factory reset must be performed  to ensure that all data is erased and the phone is restored to its original state.

Service provider must be contacted: Contacting the service provider for assistance may help with resetting the phone remotely or with other support.