Why is my phone running on Wifi? I dont have Wifi. Am I hacked somehow? How do I get rid of them?!

[Aliensnorgz930]

Hi my phones potentially hacked I think. My phone battery is saying that most everything is ran by Wifi. Im not on Wifi. Whats up with my network connection? Also i activated my device on a library computer which was stupid. Tricks. Unfortunately it could have been a phishing website to gather information and hack my phone. Im pretty sure it was. That information contained the IMEI etc. I actually realized my old phone was hacked. The location and IP address are not mine on facebook and my phone but its all in my phone. How could a hacker have access and connection. Could they have a connection to my device somehow? How would they? Are the included packages on my android system secretly a part of it? Must they have been installed by the hacker? What does this mean? What do I do to get rid of the source they have me hacked through? My phone gets warm sometimes! What is going on?! What do I do?

 

[Aliensnorgz930]

Plus I have a weird IP addresses under my phone information and on my facebook location saying im in Kansas City, MO with a weird and different IP address from the other. And nor do either match my real IP address.

 

[n0tall0wed]

your wifi still uses battery even if not connected when you leave it on. It is constantly checking for signals. That's why if I am not at home I turn off the wifi on my phone.

 

[Aliensnorgz930]

My wifi isn't on. Ever. That's the thing. My wifi is always off and I'm on the mobile network only.

 

[Aliensnorgz930]

The same thing happened to my old LG Tribute 2 phone before I got this one but instead the hacker tried to gain total control over everything on the old phone.

 

[mikedt]

Well it looks like you're using a VPN, which is that key icon in the notification bar in your attached screen-shot A VPN can certainly give you a different IP address that isn't actually yours and in a completely different place.

You state the WiFi isn't on. From your screen-shots it looks like it's on but it isn't actually connected. Double check that in the WiFi settings,

 

[Hadron]

Let's deal with the second post first: your phone has a WiFi transceiver, therefore it has a MAC address. That statement is true whether WiFi is connected or even turned on or not. So you can cross that off your list of worries.

Wireless location can easily be messed-up, e.g. if somebody near where you are has moved recently and brought their WiFi router with them: "low power" and "high precision" location modes use Google's map of WiFi routers as an input, so if you are using either of these and your WiFi is on or your settings allow Google's location system to scan for WiFi network even when WiFi is off (look in your "advanced" WiFi settings, this may be the default) then that could explain any location anomalies (sometimes their cell tower map also gets out of date, but WiFi is commoner).

People tend to be too quick to assume any anomaly is either malware or a hack. There are usually simpler explanations, so I'd check those out first.

 

[Aliensnorgz930]

It looks like you're using a VPN, which is the key icon

I am. I though downloaded it because an app (frostwire) I was using said the network was not secure so they said it required a secure network connection but didn't require a VPN network, but i downloaded a VPN app anyway for that.

 

[Aliensnorgz930]

Well it looks like you're using a VPN, which is that key icon in the notification bar in your attached screen-shot A VPN can certainly give you a different IP address that isn't actually yours and in a completely different place.
You state the WiFi isn't on. From your screen-shots it looks like it's on but it isn't actually connected. Double check that in the WiFi settings,

Actually I checked the wifi setting and went to advanced. The 'scanning always available' was on. Plus 'Keep wifi on during sleep' was on. I now turned those off.

 

[mikedt]

I am. I though downloaded it because an app (frostwire) I was using said the network was not secure so they said it required a secure network connection but didn't require a VPN network, but i downloaded a VPN app anyway for that.

The VPN is why your IP address and location are completely different to what you might be expecting see.

I use ExpressVPN myself, on phone and computer, that is certainly not my IP address and I'm nowhere near Hong Kong....

 

[Aliensnorgz930]

I thought my old phone was hacked so I got a new one. So I had to learn a little bit to prevent it from happening. My old email was breached and it said it was because of holes in the system software. I got a new email. I'm trying to prevent it from happening again. I hadn't did any system updates on it. I got a new phone. Now I know I should always do system updates.

 

[Jfalls63]

Also look in Settings - Location. Tap the three vertical dot menu to access Scanning. Turn off WiFi and Bluetooth Scanning.