Pixel Phones Hacked While in Repair, Explicit Photos Leaked, Say Users

Google Pixel customers have reported that their telephones had been hacked after they despatched them to Google’s official partnered retailer for restore. Two customers which have raised the alarm to date declare that their specific images had been stolen and leaked. One of them claimed {that a} small sum of money was additionally transferred by way of PayPal and their e-mail account was accessed. Both these hijack circumstances had been reported after the customers despatched their Pixel cellphone to a Texas restore facility by way of the mail-in choice. The customers couldn’t reset their units due to the injury and the restore of us on the facility have been accused of making the most of that.

The first criticism got here from sport designer and writer Jane McGonigal. She has suggested her followers on Twitter to not ship their Google telephones in for guarantee restore or substitute. McGonigal stated that her cellphone was utilized by somebody whereas in restore to log into her Gmail, Google Drive, Google Photos backup e-mail account, and even Dropbox. While checking her exercise logs, she stated that the hacker opened a bunch of selfies “hoping to find nudes”.

McGonigal claims that the images they opened had been of her “in bathing suits, sports bras, form-fitting dresses, and of stitches after surgery”. The hacker even reportedly deleted Google safety notifications in her backup e-mail accounts.

The hacker is claimed to have modified her Gmail settings to mark all safety messages from Google as spam. Furthermore, she says Google help advised her that her cellphone by no means reached the restore facility though FedEx marked her courier as delivered.

Another related occasion was reported by a Pixel consumer on Reddit, and reported first by Android Police. This consumer claims to have despatched the Pixel cellphone for restore on the Texas facility and it was hacked. The Reddit consumer stated that nudes of his spouse and him had been posted on his spouse’s social media account. The hackers even tried to entry her Google account to lock her out and used her PayPal to ship somebody $5 (roughly Rs. 450) as a take a look at.

Google has responded to The Verge saying that they’re investigating the declare. The firm advises customers to reset their units earlier than mailing it in for restore, however in each the circumstances talked about above, the customers stated that it wasn’t doable.