Do I need a new phone handset?

dowling71

I've just had a scare where information I gave to 2 people (working together I believe) led me to think I had been phished. In retrospect I can't believe how much I said , giving away my phone numver and other personal details which could answer some security questions.
I'm registered with cifas now and have blocked my cards. 
I have a new phone number. My question is do I need a new phone?
The first thing I did was reset my old one that she had used to make a phone call. I bought a throwaway cheap phone with new number to reauthenticate all personal addresses.
One of the culprits had it in her possession for a few minutes at a time to make a phone call.maybe I'm being paranoid but things they said in retrospect were quite suspicious.
Could she have done something to the handset (rooted it) which is not reversed with a hard reset? 
Thanks in advance,

RumRat

How about giving a bit more info about the circumstances where you gave away information and why.
What did they say that was suspicious.
You may be over reacting, but whatever to make you comfortable.
I doubt they rooted your handset.

cymruchris

dowling71 said:

I've just had a scare where information I gave to 2 people (working together I believe) led me to think I had been phished. In retrospect I can't believe how much I said , giving away my phone numver and other personal details which could answer some security questions.
I'm registered with cifas now and have blocked my cards. 
I have a new phone number. My question is do I need a new phone?
The first thing I did was reset my old one that she had used to make a phone call. I bought a throwaway cheap phone with new number to reauthenticate all personal addresses.
One of the culprits had it in her possession for a few minutes at a time to make a phone call.maybe I'm being paranoid but things they said in retrospect were quite suspicious.
Could she have done something to the handset (rooted it) which is not reversed with a hard reset? 
Thanks in advance,

We're all guessing as you've only given us the bare threads of what happened.

Keeping yourself anonymous - why not take us through what happened - label people as person A, person B etc.

That way with the full story we can try and give constructive suggestions on what to do next if you haven't already done it.

dowling71

Thanks both @ cymruchris, you've already helped with the credit side of this drama etc so thank you again!
Maybe I'm feeling tight lipped today (!) but wasn't aiming to be mysterious, just thought what they said and I said was less important than, 
1. They have my phone number
2. With my permission 'a' used my phone to call and text someone, had it in her possession for 4 minutes , 2 times with me in the room but with me not scrutinising her. 

Credit side being death with, its just the handset issue now, as to whether it could also be compromised. I'm changing my number, just no sure the circumstance where the phone could be compromised.

Would they have needed to plug it into a laptop / raspberry pi contraption, would they have néeded more than 2 x 4 minute periods with it?

Of the details divulged , I don't want to repeat them here (!) , but none related to the issue of the hardware. I didn't give away any phone related pin codes for example. 
Do you need more information? (Sorry if I'm being thick!)
Cheers in advance,

dowling71

RumRat said:

How about giving a bit more info about the circumstances where you gave away information and why.
What did they say that was suspicious.
You may be over reacting, but whatever to make you comfortable.
I doubt they rooted your handset.

This was my thought, but why do you doubt they rooted the handset? Is it because they only had it in their possession briefly (2 × 4 minute spells) and more or less in front of me?
Thanks,

cymruchris

dowling71 said:

Thanks both @ cymruchris, you've already helped with the credit side of this drama etc so thank you again!
Maybe I'm feeling tight lipped today (!) but wasn't aiming to be mysterious, just thought what they said and I said was less important than, 
1. They have my phone number
2. With my permission 'a' used my phone to call and text someone, had it in her possession for 4 minutes , 2 times with me in the room but with me not scrutinising her. 

Credit side being death with, its just the handset issue now, as to whether it could also be compromised. I'm changing my number, just no sure the circumstance where the phone could be compromised.

Would they have needed to plug it into a laptop / raspberry pi contraption, would they have néeded more than 2 x 4 minute periods with it?

Of the details divulged , I don't want to repeat them here (!) , but none related to the issue of the hardware. I didn't give away any phone related pin codes for example. 
Do you need more information? (Sorry if I'm being thick!)
Cheers in advance,

Were they people people you knew?

How did they come to be with you?

What reason did they give for wanting your phone in that period?

Did they promise you something? Like 'If you let me do this and that I can get you X'?

GDB2222

There's a program you can download from the Play Store, called Root Checker, which checks whether your phone has been rooted.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joeykrim.rootcheck&hl=en&gl=US

dowling71

Hi thanks for that I suppose what I'm asking is what physical access would they have needed to permanently compromise the phone?

Whatever was said over 7 days will stil not determine whether they were phishing. Ive assumed they were and taken advice and precautions. If I detailed everything word for word, you would still only be guessing at their intentions wouldn't you? 🤷‍♂️ 

I'm asking about the physical access involved in compromising a handset. If they didn't have the necessary physical access, I can they assume the phone is safe. Thats what I'm trying yo establish now.

I assume there are some very specific physical requirements for rooting or cloning a phone and I wondered what the criteria were? Sorry if this is a different question to my original one. 

Hypothetically, what access would be needed to permanently compromise a handset ? 

dowling71

GDB2222 said:

There's a program you can download from the Play Store, called Root Checker, which checks whether your phone has been rooted.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joeykrim.rootcheck&hl=en&gl=US

Thanks, I'll do that as apparently the rooting of a phone can survive a reset.
Do you know if a phone can be rooted in 8 minutes?!
Thanks

dowling71

Were they people people you knew?

I've knownthem a few days 

How did they come to be with you?

Temporary group living situation 

What reason did they give for wanting your phone in that period?

Lost phone, emergency, needed to call home 

Did they promise you something? Like 'If you let me do this and that I can get you X'?

No promises made , they asked and at the time I didnt think anything of it.

GDB2222

dowling71 said:

GDB2222 said:

There's a program you can download from the Play Store, called Root Checker, which checks whether your phone has been rooted.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joeykrim.rootcheck&hl=en&gl=US

Thanks, I'll do that as apparently the rooting of a phone can survive a reset.
Do you know if a phone can be rooted in 8 minutes?!
Thanks

You mean 8 minutes plus all the time between the two times they borrowed it to leave it downloading in the background.