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RegretfulUsername

macrumors newbie
Nov 30, 2022
6
2
@nottechsavy I don't mean this to be flippant or dismissive, but am I understanding correctly that all this person is doing is sending you texts essentially illustrating that they know where you/your girlfriend are, or what you guys are talking about? If so, have you considered simply ignoring them? I would think they will eventually get tired/bored and go away. If they are truly doing what you claim, then they can see this post you've made and read about how much it is affecting you mentally and how much it is affecting your relationship with your girlfriend. Basically, if I'm understanding the situation correctly, this post is highly incentivizing the person to continue doing what they're doing.

If they're not stealing money from you or harming you physically or financially in some way, and you can't seem to clean your girlfriend's and your devices and/or afford to replace them all, the cheapest thing you could do is to ignore them.

Again, I certainly don't mean to dismiss your frustration however if you can't manage to solve this problem from a technological angle, you can at least ignore them.
 
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nottechsavy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 3, 2024
18
1
@nottechsavy I don't mean this to be flippant or dismissive, but am I understanding correctly that all this person is doing is sending you texts essentially illustrating that they know where you/your girlfriend are, or what you guys are talking about? If so, have you considered simply ignoring them? I would think they will eventually get tired/bored and go away. If they are truly doing what you claim, then they can see this post you've made and read about how much it is affecting you mentally and how much it is affecting your relationship with your girlfriend. Basically, if I'm understanding the situation correctly, this post is highly incentivizing the person to continue doing what they're doing.

If they're not stealing money from you or harming you physically or financially in some way, and you can't seem to clean your girlfriend's and your devices and/or afford to replace them all, the cheapest thing you could do is to ignore them.

Again, I certainly don't mean to dismiss your frustration however if you can't manage to solve this problem from a technological angle, you can at least ignore them.
I have tried it’s impossible
 

iStorm

macrumors 68020
Sep 18, 2012
2,034
2,441
This person knows where her kids go to school know what our house looks like.

Easter weekend for example I was down the shore at my house she was up north were we live full time she was going to come she put the address in her phone or computer

This person texted me now they now I have another house and the address
Just to play devil's advocate here, this is relatively public information. Just because they know it doesn't mean they got it off one of your devices. Many counties have their Geographic Information System (GIS) online. One can just type in a name to find all the properties/addresses someone owns. (Or if it's not online, they may be able to look at public records at the library or court house.) They can see what your house looks like on Google Street View. Schools are typically assigned based on what district you live in.

I agree with the others...turn off your devices or limit your usage to just a few of them. Perhaps consider turning on Lockdown Mode on your iPhones, iPads, and Macs.

I would also say don't be changing your number all the time. That will just give them satisfaction that they were able to harass/bully you and continue doing it. Ignore the texts and emails. Set up a focus mode to only allow contacts/numbers that you trust to be able to come through. (You'll still get the others, but at least your phone won't be dinging all the time for those.)
 
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Queen6

macrumors G4
@nottechsavy These should detect most malware and are solely on demand scanners for the Mac and free, beyond that a paid active AV solution.
  • KnockKnock from Objective See which links to Virus Total with over 70 AV engines
  • BitDefender (free on apple Mac Store). Paid version of BitDefender has active malware protection, free version utilises the same AV engine
Close the doors and seal the leaks
  • Change all passwords to strong ones, dont trust any current hardware (router included). Pickup something new to change the password on
  • Enable TFA on all accounts, no TFA dont trust and look for an alternative
  • Reset all your devices including router
  • Ensure routers admin account has a strong password, set it up only on wire, not WIFI. The default ones are on the web!!! a weak point to any close by with some knowledge
  • Ensure routers WIFI has a strong password
  • If possible use a router with a guest account for family & friends. If not change the password (on wire) after the visit
  • Learn to use your routers web interface (on wire only) it will reveal what is and has been on your local network
  • Download software from only known good sources
  • Scan all devices with reputable AV etc. at regular intervals
  • Don't use any work related account on you personal devices and vice versa. Consider any work related hardware, for work hardware and software an open book with no personal security!!!
  • Don't leave devices connected overnight purely for convenience; turn them off, set up a timer on the router if it has that feature
  • Don't assume those around you dont have the skills, they may or may know someone or simply be willing to pay
  • Don't reply to the attacker, do document in detail and take pictures
  • Go radio silent regarding this matter. Less who know the details the better, dont discuss. Here you are anonymous for the most part, however assume the attacker can access this site as he/she can get into your HW. So no more personal/situational details. Strongly recommend you edit out all of the same ASAP and ask other members to do the same
Seems to be more a targeted attack via social engineering than a random malware run in;

Security works best in layers; ensure all OS are updated, all OS firewalls are on, use built in AV and bolster it with on demand malware scanners all OS, use a password manager, consider a reputable VPN (mandatory if using open networks)

Compartmentalise; family, private, work use different email & social media accounts. Never use personal hardware and or accounts for work purpose, never use work hardware and or accounts for personal use. Any work provided device or for work device is an open book to some as they likely have admin rights on it. Unless what you do on the web is end to end encrypted and conducted with a trusted individual it's no more safe than sending your life's details on a postcard for all to read 🤔

You have a leak somewhere, potentially one of the above. You need to be systematic in your use of any connected device and need to close down your threat vector ASAP or it will likely continue. Just from these few words this individual likely knows you and has some level of access, back to social engineering...

Your wise to take it seriously as it could potentially escalate in the wrong hands. Hopefully it will cease with some preventative measures in place. If you do feel it's social engineering I'd be tempted to leave some false info in hope of pinpointing and exposing the culprit...

Q-6
 

splifingate

macrumors 68000
Nov 27, 2013
1,901
1,694
ATL
My tel.# somehow got-revealed "out in the wild" via FB/Reddit/etc. a handful of years ago, and I perennially get random strangers txt'ing me . . . random, and weird.

I'm always game for odd-ball convo, so I sometimes play-along . . . for a while ;)

Every three months, or so, I get a new txt from someone saying "Hi [splifingate]!", and the hilarity begins.

Latest was someone who--sincerely--enjoyed the kinds of things I like.

Thus ensued a multi-day dialogue.

They subsequently shared that they were ESOL, and (somewhere in the convo.) the question arose as to where they actually were in this World:

"Dude; did you not see my tel.#?!?"

The tel.# was *entirely* local, and--when I shared what I was seeing on my end, the convo. quickly ceased.

With no deprecation to the very-real frustration that you are currently experiencing, I entirely agree with the wisdom of RegretfulUsername:

"you can at least ignore them".
 
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darkpaw

macrumors 6502a
Sep 13, 2007
760
1,451
London, England
Blocking the number?!?!?!? I have blocked over 60 numbers I have changed everything password and deleted everything

Not the computer yet cause if someone is there I need proof and to find them. I’m not letting this go. I have lost sleep days of work a million fights with my girl and we have a baby coming this should be a happy time for us and instead im dealing with this every day and it’s literally killing me

I can see how people get bullied until they killing themselves
You're not wiping the computer because you want evidence of who it is, but when we suggest you go to the police you say it's pointless. What you gonna do with the evidence then?

Just block the numbers as they come in, enable Lockdown Mode, get in touch with the police, and let them handle it.
 
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nottechsavy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 3, 2024
18
1
You're not wiping the computer because you want evidence of who it is, but when we suggest you go to the police you say it's pointless. What you gonna do with the evidence then?

Just block the numbers as they come in, enable Lockdown Mode, get in touch with the police, and let them handle it.
Cause when I have actual proof to show them. Like here see there is someone watching her computer.

You would think the police would actually care with some of the stuff I got but they haven’t trust me. It’s actually a joke
 

za9ra22

macrumors 65816
Sep 25, 2003
1,441
1,931
@nottechsavy There are no cybersecurity experts on this forum to help you with spyware.
Contact The Citizen Lab, they specialize in dealing with this kind of attack https://citizenlab.ca
What is more, even if there are experts here, if the OP has actually been hacked, the person responsible is likely able to view this thread too.
Cause when I have actual proof to show them. Like here see there is someone watching her computer.

You would think the police would actually care with some of the stuff I got but they haven’t trust me. It’s actually a joke
The problem is that the police can't act on anything unless the law is broken, and a hacker in a computer spying on you isn't likely to be breaking any laws. Proof isn't going to help.

You have had a lot of advice to get you going in the right direction to resolve this, and it is likely that just about wherever you live, there are going to be businesses you can turn to who specialize in cleaning up systems which have suffered malware invasions and been exploited. If you're not following our advice, then grab your phone book and call around. It will cost you a bit, but even a small mom-and-pop type of place is going to be more support than doing nothing other than panic.
 

bogdanw

macrumors 603
Mar 10, 2009
6,111
3,021

6749974

Cancelled
Mar 19, 2005
959
963
Let us help you troubleshoot devices. Start with this:
  1. Make a table listing every device you and your girlfriend have touched in the last several years
  2. In separate columns, give us the status like "In Use/Not Used" and "Wiped/Not Wiped" and "Me/Girlfriend"
  3. Make sure to include work devices also, since you or she may be logged into a work device, even a coworkers device, or an old device from a previous job
Example:

DeviceIn Use?Previously Wiped?User
iPhone SENoYesMe
Google Pixel 3YesYesGirlfriend

Also, do similar with accounts.
  1. Example: Gmail, iCloud, Phone Provider, etc
  2. Then user
  3. Then a column listing if and when you've changed the password
  4. and a column showing if you've logged out all devices (you can usually do this from the account → security settings)
Example:

ServiceUserChanged Password?Logged out all devices?
GmailMeYesYes
GmailGirlfriendNoNo

Finally, in combination, I would consider getting your girlfriend an iPhone instead of some Android phone that is likely easier to hack; at least temporarily, to see if that solves the issue.

[Note: Use the table function (in your reply) which is under the 3-dot hamburger menu to the right of the smiley face]

Start from first principles. If you threw out all devices and stopped using all services, would this stalker be able to track you and see your info? No. Now—as a mental exercise—hypothetically add each device back into use. Where does the stalker start tracking you and providing you the type of information that they've been teasing you with? Example: They now know your second address, so which device would have that? If its your girlfriend's phone, then what service would that be that the info is on? Is it a contacts app? Is it gmail? Is it a messenger app? If you got rid of the phone, and bought her an iPhone, would the stalker still get that same info?
 
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nottechsavy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 3, 2024
18
1
What is more, even if there are experts here, if the OP has actually been hacked, the person responsible is likely able to view this thread too.

The problem is that the police can't act on anything unless the law is broken, and a hacker in a computer spying on you isn't likely to be breaking any laws. Proof isn't going to help.

You have had a lot of advice to get you going in the right direction to resolve this, and it is likely that just about wherever you live, there are going to be businesses you can turn to who specialize in cleaning up systems which have suffered malware invasions and been exploited. If you're not following our advice, then grab your phone book and call around. It will cost you a bit, but even a small mom-and-pop type of place is going to be more support than doing nothing other than panic.
It’s not about panic. I’m not posting or getting in to deep details of what has been sent but if it was you and your gf it wouldn’t sit right with you either

There have been plenty of threats and someone knowing everything about her doesn’t sit well with me. I can take care of my self.

Also I started this account from a computer that hasn’t been involved on a completely different network and only ever used my phone to post her which is not on any cloud services or anything.

I am doing to take peoples advise here and I appreciate the time anyone took to post something or respond
 

za9ra22

macrumors 65816
Sep 25, 2003
1,441
1,931
It’s not about panic. I’m not posting or getting in to deep details of what has been sent but if it was you and your gf it wouldn’t sit right with you either

There have been plenty of threats and someone knowing everything about her doesn’t sit well with me. I can take care of my self.

Also I started this account from a computer that hasn’t been involved on a completely different network and only ever used my phone to post her which is not on any cloud services or anything.

I am doing to take peoples advise here and I appreciate the time anyone took to post something or respond
Depends on where you are, because the law is different everywhere, but in some jurisdictions threats are legally actionable, so if the police aren't taking them seriously, you can get a lawyer involved to add leverage, or even report the problem upstream to whomever oversees the police in your location.

If the threat isn't actionable, all you can do is work to track and block whoever this is from having access. Your comments so far suggest a primary concern over your girlfriend's system being the culprit's access point, but a forensic analysis of all your devices would be wise.

One thing you should be careful of is to NOT move data around between devices. Keeping everything isolated so you're not sharing emails, texts, documents, browser trails etc will make it easier to spot the access point. You can even test this to some degree once everything is isolated, by using each device to separately send something like a false email to an existing address. In each case, make the email about a different subject, and use a new recipient address you set up, so this person can't already have access to it.

Then you watch for any references in threats or texts to anything specific to any of the messages - which one tells you which device it came from, thus which the person has access to.

Ultimately though, going totally dark - pulling all your devices out of service and powering them off, including your router and wifi so there is nothing for the attacker to monitor is the only sure action you can take to halt access.

Personally, I'd do that, and in the process find a local computer store that offers malware detection and cleanup, and hand everything over to them to examine.
 

nottechsavy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 3, 2024
18
1
Depends on where you are, because the law is different everywhere, but in some jurisdictions threats are legally actionable, so if the police aren't taking them seriously, you can get a lawyer involved to add leverage, or even report the problem upstream to whomever oversees the police in your location.

If the threat isn't actionable, all you can do is work to track and block whoever this is from having access. Your comments so far suggest a primary concern over your girlfriend's system being the culprit's access point, but a forensic analysis of all your devices would be wise.

One thing you should be careful of is to NOT move data around between devices. Keeping everything isolated so you're not sharing emails, texts, documents, browser trails etc will make it easier to spot the access point. You can even test this to some degree once everything is isolated, by using each device to separately send something like a false email to an existing address. In each case, make the email about a different subject, and use a new recipient address you set up, so this person can't already have access to it.

Then you watch for any references in threats or texts to anything specific to any of the messages - which one tells you which device it came from, thus which the person has access to.

Ultimately though, going totally dark - pulling all your devices out of service and powering them off, including your router and wifi so there is nothing for the attacker to monitor is the only sure action you can take to halt access.

Personally, I'd do that, and in the process find a local computer store that offers malware detection and cleanup, and hand everything over to them to examine.
Thanks dude appreciate the response I need to see if I can make cell phone numbers private cause if not they can just find them again and again
 

nottechsavy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 3, 2024
18
1
Just to play devil's advocate here, this is relatively public information. Just because they know it doesn't mean they got it off one of your devices. Many counties have their Geographic Information System (GIS) online. One can just type in a name to find all the properties/addresses someone owns. (Or if it's not online, they may be able to look at public records at the library or court house.) They can see what your house looks like on Google Street View. Schools are typically assigned based on what district you live in.

I agree with the others...turn off your devices or limit your usage to just a few of them. Perhaps consider turning on Lockdown Mode on your iPhones, iPads, and Macs.

I would also say don't be changing your number all the time. That will just give them satisfaction that they were able to harass/bully you and continue doing it. Ignore the texts and emails. Set up a focus mode to only allow contacts/numbers that you trust to be able to come through. (You'll still get the others, but at least your phone won't be dinging all the time for those.)
I agree with you about records but some of those things are not record so they are seeing and knowing some how
 

avz

macrumors 68000
Oct 7, 2018
1,828
1,896
Stalingrad, Russia
I agree with you about records but some of those things are not record so they are seeing and knowing some how
How confident are you that your girlfriend is not actually trying to get rid of you? Most guys have a very low "social IQ" and not very good at "reading the cues" that it is time to move on.
 
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nottechsavy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 3, 2024
18
1
How confident are you that your girlfriend is not actually trying to get rid of you? Most guys have a very low "social IQ" and not very good at "reading the cues" that it is time to move on.
You sound like this person so thank u
 

bogdanw

macrumors 603
Mar 10, 2009
6,111
3,021
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