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When grocery shopping earlier this evening, a young man in his 20's in a hooded sweatshirt who looked incredibly high and/or mildly intellectually disabled approached me in the bread isle to ask to use my phone. When I inquired about the reason, he informed me it was to contact his mother. Without thinking an excessive amount, I unlocked my phone, opened the dialer, and handed it to him.

While the call was being placed, I remained within an arm's reach prepared to trip him if he attempted to bugger off. He appeared to dial a number, hold the phone to his face for a few moments, and then made a combination of three taps and window swipes before handing it back and expressing appreciation.

Shortly after the encounter, I ran a malware scan, and nothing was detected. There was also no record of the alleged call the person made, so I assumed he must have deleted the call log. Additionally, no new apps were installed, and I have my phone set to only allow Google Play app downloads and not automatically download SMS messages. There were also no anomolous records in sent folders of email apps or new entries in my browser history, and I was logged out of all financial apps, which have double layer protection enabled.

For all I know, he could have called a drug dealer or actually phoned his mother, but all sorts of scams outlined in Google search results have me reeling at the moment. Do any resident cyber security specialists have suggestions other than asking people to use the store phone in the future? Should I be looking for additional signs of tampering? Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Edit:] I just researched info regarding USSD codes that can be entered into a phone's dialer app to acces certain settings, device cloning, and about USB rubber duckies and how phones can be converted into them and used to harvest data that can be used to hijack an active service plan and/or circumvent 2 step text message security verification measures.

If the aforementioned person had a modified phone in his sweatshirt pocket, a data transfer could have probably happened in a matter of seconds with very few taps and swipes. It's truly frightening to consider what a con person could accomplish by borrowing a phone.

Dude fuck that. Yeah I don't want to sound like an asshole but I don't let people ever use my phone. And yeah you can have your phone jacked just standing around in a public place if you don't have your Bluetooth settings just so ..

After this experience, I don't see an issue with never letting other people borrow a smart phone. Unless it's a bona fide emergency, the risks far outweigh benefits, and I can dial 911 for someone else if necessary. Lost-looking millennials pitifully clutching loaves of bread will need to contact mommy another way.

Bluetooth is neither enabled nor accessible via my phone's pull down menu. The only time it sees use is at home with tablets and keyboards. Thankfully, there was no activity in my phone's Bluetooth history, though I discovered it only takes a few taps to share an entire list of contacts via Bluetooth.

Totally kicking myself in the arse at the moment (whether or not the threat is real). The local police department website didn't have any alerts about scams of this nature, so maybe panic is unwarranted. Maybe that non-Equifax identity theft protection service I've been paying for since the Equifax hack will finally come in handy.

I don't like having to clean others peoples face oils off my phone, let alone all the other shit you just talked about

Perhaps he liked the look of you and was checking for nudes ?

Instances like this make me glad I don't have a cell phone anymore.

Face oil accumulation is gross and something that was actually being considered while he had the phone near his face.

LOL @ nudes - thanks for the much-needed levity, Paul.

I didn't acquire a cell phone until around 2006-2007 and upgraded to a smart phone sometime in the early 2010's. Without a landline phone, mobile phone ownership has become an unfortunate necessity.

I just spent most of the day changing numerous passwords, obsessively reviewing apps and permissions, and enabling additional login protections with the hopes that any cloned data would be rendered worthless. Of course, if invisible malware is in the equation, this is far from over. There was a time that concerns of this nature would be considered paranoid. I wonder if there are any PSAs on this topic, as recent news stories seem to suggest actual phone borrowing scams incorporating malware are becoming increasingly widespread in the NYC area ( which isn't too far from here).

I never hand my phone to anyone, either I make the call for them or they're out of luck.

Maybe he just deleted the number after his mom didn’t answer?

jrfox92 wrote:Maybe he's working with an artificial intelligence that gave him your social security number to let him know that you're potentially in mortal danger based on a series of seemingly random events and now he's hiding in the background watching you in order to prevent your eventual murder.

This is most likely

Yeah, I don’t let any stranger use my phone anymore. These days it’s nearly on the level of letting someone use your wallet for a moment

One time I was at the airport and this lady at baggage claim asked to use my phone to call her ride. Her battery was dead or something. I'm a nice guy so I said sure. She calls somebody and in the middle of talking to them has a fucking crazy gross coughing fit, making no effort whatsoever to cover her mouth or move my phone away from her face. I half expected a lugi to be hanging off of it. I'm staring at her in disbelief and she just smiles, finishes her conversation and hands the phone back and walks away. I tried to clean it off, but I got the flu a few days later. Fuck that lady. And no more being nice with my phone.

01010111 wrote:Yeah, I don’t let any stranger use my phone anymore. These days it’s nearly on the level of letting someone use your wallet for a moment

This is very sensible and a good way to put it.