Am I being bugged?
May 3, 2010 4:19 AM Subscribe
I am a British national living in Beijing, China. I know of no reason why I would be deemed interesting enough to spy on, but something weird is happening here. Has my cell phone been bugged?
I am currently in Hong Kong and had swapped the China Mobile sim card on my iPhone 3GS to a One2Free Hong Kong sim that I bought last time I was here. A couple of hours later, I was sat at my computer with my cell phone at my side when suddenly I heard the familiar sound of it making a call. Except the display showed nothing. I picked the phone up, put it to my ear and it eventually went to an automated American voice mail message. I quickly shut the phone off and turned it back on again. The weirdest thing is that there are no registered calls in Recent Calls.
What is going on, Metafilter? How can I know for sure I've not been bugged? Maybe I sound overly paranoid, but this is China we're talking about.
I am currently in Hong Kong and had swapped the China Mobile sim card on my iPhone 3GS to a One2Free Hong Kong sim that I bought last time I was here. A couple of hours later, I was sat at my computer with my cell phone at my side when suddenly I heard the familiar sound of it making a call. Except the display showed nothing. I picked the phone up, put it to my ear and it eventually went to an automated American voice mail message. I quickly shut the phone off and turned it back on again. The weirdest thing is that there are no registered calls in Recent Calls.
What is going on, Metafilter? How can I know for sure I've not been bugged? Maybe I sound overly paranoid, but this is China we're talking about.
Response by poster: No, no. The phone itself actually made a call. But it showed nothing on the call display.
posted by Zé Pequeno at 4:23 AM on May 3, 2010
posted by Zé Pequeno at 4:23 AM on May 3, 2010
Apparently, other people experience this problem with the iPhone -- and have since 2007 -- with no fix.
posted by nitsuj at 4:31 AM on May 3, 2010
posted by nitsuj at 4:31 AM on May 3, 2010
Response by poster: I'd read that already. In those cases, though, it seems to ring a number the person actually knows. I have no US numbers on my phone.
posted by Zé Pequeno at 4:32 AM on May 3, 2010
posted by Zé Pequeno at 4:32 AM on May 3, 2010
Hm. If it showed no numbers on the call display, how do you know it dialed a US number? It could've selected one of your Brazillian or mainland Chinese saved numbers, dialed without the international prefix, and been picked up by an American's answering machine (or an American business' answering machine) in Hong Kong.
posted by Valet at 7:12 AM on May 3, 2010
posted by Valet at 7:12 AM on May 3, 2010
If they wanted to bug it, I'm sure they wouldn't have it make suspicious behavior. Also, it wouldn't make sense for them to have a program on the phone since it would take quite a bit of space to store the calls (audio). The carrier already has a list of who you call so they don't need that (no warrant required right?). Cell phone signals are an easy intercept anyway.
Cheers from a fellow expat in BJ.
posted by chinabound at 10:13 AM on May 3, 2010
Cheers from a fellow expat in BJ.
posted by chinabound at 10:13 AM on May 3, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by molecicco at 4:22 AM on May 3, 2010