Apple iPhones are regarded as some of the most secure electronic gadgets around today. iPhones are rarely at risk of viral infection except the device has been jailbroken. In what could be termed a bizarre situation, an iPhone user in China reports that her smartphone develops a mind of its own when it is plugged into the charger.
According to the owner identified as Ms. Yang, the unnamed iPhone model was placed on the table to charge and automatically opened the Ctrip app (Asia’s leading online travel agent). The iPhone also navigated through the app to the hotel rooms section and booked a presidential suite of a hotel in Shanghai which costs 10,880 yuan. The iPhone even opened the WeChat app n order to pay for the booking. However, the owner unplugged the charger before payment was concluded and the process stopped abruptly on the payment page. In addition, the phone switched automatically from 4G to 2G network. The user also claimed to have turned on the screen recording feature on her phone but it was turned off by the phone. The lady repeated the process again and after plugging the charger for a while, the phone proceeded to book a train ticket on WeChat.
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The owner also disclosed that the phone has not been jailbroken. However, the charging cable and adapter in question weren’t the original charging gadgets that came with the phone but a third-party one. We can’t actually say for sure what could have caused this but it should be the famous “ghost touch” issue that several iPhone users have reported as can be seen from this 2014 Apple community thread here. In most cases, the issue pops up when the phone is being charged and most of the complainants owned the iPhone. This has also been traced to using a third-party charger just as in this case. There is also the suspicion that it could be malware. A research by the Georgia Institute of Technology had discovered that it was possible to load malware onto the iPhone charger and in turn compromise the security of the iOS device, regardless of whether or not the phone was jailbroken or if the user even took any action on the phone. Although this is a 2013 research finding and since then no major incidence has been reported, we can’t rule out the possibility of it happening now. However, “ghost touch” is the most likely diagnosis and it is something using an original charging adapter and cable should fix.
(source)
