A scary notification message that hung my phone.

[kaiserbreath]

Hey guys.

Ive been using this phone for over 2 months with no issues.
However today I received a notification message when I checked the phone completely hung.Luckily I remembered to click a screenshot button before I had to reboot the OS. Please have a look at the attached image.

The message is something like "V R watchin Ur every Moment by 3 Different Sources..". This is really freaky but I hope its not true . Is there a way some other device could communicate with mine and send a message?

I tried to look for similar cases online but no avail. Its not a notification from any of my applications (whatsapp/facebook) in fact if you check the screenshot it does not even show the application beside it.
Does anyone know how this is possible and is there any way I can check if there is any security hole in the device that allowed for something like this to pop up randomly.

Please help me out on what step should I take ahead. I can connect this to a mac to try and gather additional information from the phone but I have no clue where to start.

 

[Leonard1818]

google search turned up this:

http://jokesbysatish.blogspot.com/2011/07/do-not-ever-think.html

Joke from a friend?

 

[kmichalec]

...when I checked the phone completely hung.Luckily I remembered to click a screenshot button before I had to reboot the OS.

If the phone was completely hung, how did the screen capture feature work?

 

[swordfish5736]

And what app did this come from? It seems you conveniently cut the top off of the screenshot so it's probably just a notification from a game you have

 

[kaiserbreath]

The website you linked me for definitely seems like a joke but when the phone restarted the message/notification was nowhere to be found.

I'm not sure how the screenshot worked, I immediately pressed it as I saw the message.The OS may not be updating the display but it saved the screenshot I presume.

----------

I've not cut it, this is exactly where the phone hung. I've the original JPG file if anyone is interested in having a look I can send it across. I was stuck wondering myself which app did the message come from.

And what app did this come from? It seems you conveniently cut the top off of the screenshot so it's probably just a notification from a game you have

 

[swordfish5736]

What apps do you have set to show notifications in the notification center?

Is the phone jailbroken?

 

[kaiserbreath]

The phone is a factory unlocked 4S running 5.0.1 not jailbroken yet.

Things that are active on notification are


Phone
Messages
Reminder
Calender
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Instagram
Bump
Talk
A note lite

What apps do you have set to show notifications in the notification center?

Is the phone jailbroken?

 

[swordfish5736]

Is instagram actually in there twice or just a typo? Maybe one of them is a "fake app" that a friend put on to mess with you

 

[kaiserbreath]

Sorry typo. I checked again and there is only one.

 

[RodThePlod]

Sorry typo. I checked again and there is only one.

It'll be quite difficult for you to work out what generated that message. You could try swiping into Search from your home screen and searching for (in quotation marks) "Ur every Moment". If that was sent in an email, text message, or some other form of message the search might find it for you and help you identify its source.

If you're really concerned, then restore your phone to factory settings through iTunes (ensure you have a backup of anything important) and re-sync your data back on. While it's definitely possible, it's unlikely that any apps you've bought from the store will be hacked so sync those back too. Again, if you're concerned, only sync the 'well known' apps and maybe not bother with the ones you never used or thought were rubbish anyway.

Good luck!

RTP.

 

[kaiserbreath]

I did check in the search and nothing showed up.
Yea I guess I will be backing up the phone and restoring it to factory settings.

It could be a coincidence that the phone hung because of the message and it was posted on twitter or some social post. However this was the first time my 4S hung which was the weird thing so I thought I'd check up if something similar has happened for any of you.