If your phone battery drains quickly, it may not be due to all the music you're listening to.  A quickly dying battery is one sign that your phone may have been hacked.

Technology is awesome until it's not anymore.

Smartphones can hold our pictures, email accounts, banking information, and credit card numbers, and that makes hackers very happy.  If they can get in there without us knowing it, they sure can swipe a lot of valuable information.

Techlicious says sometimes we download apps that contain malware without knowing it, and once we grant the app the permissions it asks for it can access our private info.

So how can we tell if our smartphones have been hacked?

6 Signs your phone may have been hacked, according to Techlicious.

1. Noticeable decrease in battery life.  The spy app could be "using up phone resources to scan the device and transmit the information back to a criminal server."  That leads to a decrease in the battery's lifespan.

2. Sluggish performance.  If the phone freezes and some apps crash, malware could be overloading it or causing conflicts.

3. High data usage.  Again, the spy app is running in the background and sending information back to its server.

4. Outgoing calls or texts you didn’t send.  The malware could be forcing your phone to call certain numbers, and sometimes they're the premium rates.  Watch for fishy charges on your bill.

5. Mystery pop-ups.  Ads could pop up that want you to click because the hackers get paid-per-click.  Or the pop-ups could be phishing attempts.

6. Unusual activity on any accounts linked to the device.  If passwords are reset or you get verification emails saying you signed up for a new account on an app, that could be a hacker.

Karma will get 'em, right?  Until then, be alert.  And if your phone is acting weird, it's best to download a mobile security app like Avast and let it scan for suspicious activity and kick the spies off of your device.

Now, back to sweet thoughts of puppies, meadows, and rainbows.  The world is a good place.  Once we get rid of the annoying things.

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