An Israel-based fraud ring was recently dismantled; they had stolen 13 billion TL from people in Türkiye, including both citizens and foreign residents. There is virtually no cesspool of wrongdoing that Israel isn't involved in—spanning everything from microchips and software to hackers. We now need technologies that Turkish people can use with confidence. In the event of a war, I do not want the Turkish nation to be targeted via location data shared on WhatsApp (as has happened in Palestine). I cannot convince my relatives to stop using WhatsApp. We can only achieve this by developing a national mobile phone.
A look at how Israel hacks phones using spyware
I experienced something interesting yesterday, which I also wrote about here. I burned through 50 GB of data in about 20 minutes, followed by another 8 GB (in 1 GB increments). I called Turkcell and switched my plan to a capped data limit. When I asked for an explanation, they said, "It could be background app updates or something similar; we can't see the specifics from our end." It was a frustrating situation. A friend who saw my post called; he said he had experienced something similar and asked a few questions:
- Did the phone's battery drain extremely fast?
- Did the phone overheat unnecessarily?
- Did you receive any strange SMS or WhatsApp messages?
All of these things happened yesterday; I’ll write about the details in a moment.
Reflecting on the last day or two, I recalled:
- A WhatsApp video call from an unknown African number the morning before last.
- An SMS I deleted without opening because it seemed suspicious.
Now, back to yesterday...
In the morning, the battery was at 100%. By midday, it had dropped to around 10%.
I put the phone in airplane mode and plugged it in to charge.
Meanwhile, the device overheated so much that I could feel it through my jacket pocket. When I took it out to check, the heat was intense—far beyond anything I had experienced before.
I finished my work, unplugged and turned on the phone around 4:00 PM, and that’s when the data-draining incident began.
Here is the situation:
When I checked the settings to see what was consuming the data, I found that the "Documents" app accounted for 80% of the usage—which is impossible. This is something that can only happen if your phone is compromised or data is being transmitted elsewhere.
So, the bottom line is:
- In the past, they could infiltrate your phone if you clicked on a message or link; now, apparently, that isn't even necessary. Just receiving the message is enough. (Pegasus)
- You don't need to be a government official or a high-ranking figure. Who you message, who you call, and the nature of your social media activity are enough for them to target you.
- Is there anything that can be done once that message arrives? I asked; unfortunately, no... You're out of luck. Even deleting it doesn't help.
- I don't know if this is something run-of-the-mill internet scammers are capable of doing, though.
How can we tell?
- If your phone's battery drains much faster than usual,
- If the device overheats excessively for no apparent reason,
- If you previously received a suspicious SMS, WhatsApp call, or message,
- If your mobile data runs out suddenly.
Good luck.
I asked if noticing it early and switching the phone to airplane mode might be a solution. That doesn't work either.
