Jason Manford has shared how he was "freaked out" after being contacted by a stranger who had "hacked" his daughter's phone. The comedian took to social media to tell fans about the "odd" experience - explaining how he had threatened to call police during the exchange with an unknown man in India.
He said he received "loads of texts" and even a call from his daughter's number - while she was sitting next to him at home, not using her phone. The stranger was asking for a password to 'unlock' a device.
The dad-of-six explained on a post on Instagram: "I thought someone had hacked my daughter's phone somehow and was texting them back trying to work out what the hell was happening. I didn’t believe it was real and then they sent me actual photos of her and her friends off her iCloud! As well as screenshots of her Snapchat chats with her friends!"
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Jason said he was "freaked out" at this point - and then the man called him from his daughter's number, leaving him "furious". It turned out the man had bought his daughter's old phone, which was linked to her iCloud account, from "some dodgy shop" but couldn't reset it without the old password, which Jason refused to give him.
He added: "I told him I was calling the police and he deleted everything he sent and blocked me!" After the "bloody weird" exchange, Jason figured out what happened - in a warning about the pitfalls of cloud storage.
The comedian continued: "I worked out that my dad took (and lost!) my daughter’s old iPhone 6 to Australia LAST February. It must’ve found its way into a phone shop in Dubai or somewhere and this Indian fella must’ve got it.
"Anyway it came back online today cos my daughter noticed pictures that were not her appearing on her photos! I’ve now managed to log in, find it (somewhere near New Delhi!) and erase and Remove it from her iCloud etc!"
Many of Jason's 379,000 followers were similarly taken aback by the experience. Helen Dawson wrote: "This isn’t weird, it’s terrifying! As parents we now have so little control over our children's lives, but also their online presence. The only thing we can do is Teach Them Well".
Ali commented: "Scary stuff! Just shows how easy it is to get hold of someone’s identity in this disposable technical world we live in!!! Glad you sorted the security for your daughter and relieved you were sat with her when it happened x".
Dr Thenjiwe added: "That's crazy. It's great she was with you when it happened". Charlie Wilson wrote: "Oh god! That is freaky!! Glad you managed to disconnect it!"
Sharron Scott advised: "When you loose a phone always remove it from your iCloud straight away. Made that mistake before!" Nick Wellings warned: "Erasing was certainly the right thing to do. Be vigilant as all data that was on the phone would have been accessible."
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