Have I been hacked? (strange message that came through my car speakers)

In My Humble Opinion
1

I came home from an errand just now. I had been listening to a podcast through the car speakers from my phone connected via Bluetooth / Apple CarPlay. After I had parked in the garage, stopped the podcast, but before I turned my vehicle off, I heard a robotic female voice say something like (it was hard to hear, I was surprised and it only played once, so this is only close):

[My first and last name], you have been hacked. Give a small donation to donald trump within the next 30 days, or you will be hacked by ISIS.

And that was it. The message itself is so ridiculous it seems like a joke, but joke or not, something very strange and not right happened. The thing is, I don’t know if this means the electronics of my vehicle were hacked, or the message originated from my hacked phone.

My phone is an iPhone 15, and I drive a 2025 Jeep Grand Cherokee. How do I go about checking if my phone, or somehow my Jeep, has been compromised, and fix it?

2

What app do you use for the podcast? Could it just’ve been an ad or stupid recommendation in that app?

3

No, I think I ruled that out, thanks. And as I said, the message used my first and last name, so it’s not just some random recording.

4

Man! Nothing, at all, makes sense about that message. How tech savvy are your friends and how adept are they at practical jokes?

5

Well, my son is a computer science major and he’s home from college for the holidays. So him pranking me was my first guess. But when I came in the house he was talking with his mom and when I described what happened, and directly asked him if he was pranking me, he seemed genuinely surprised and concerned, and looked online for similar instances, which he said he did not find. So, if it’s him he’s playing a long game.

6

does your phone connect to your car via BT? …

(for the time being, I still would resist the urge to donate to a billinaire …)

7

Update to iOS 26.2 ASAP, and next time you take the Jeep in for a service see if there’s a software update for it.

8

Did you tailgate or cut somebody off on the road?

9

Drag down from the top of the screen, see if any notifications show this message.

10

Also check your text messages, it could be there

11

Apple CarPlay, which uses a combo of Bluetooth and wi-fi.

I updated my phone. Will ask about a Jeep software update.

I checked notifications and all apps that could have gotten that message. I looked at all my phone apps in fact, to see if there are any I don’t recognize. All looked legit.

Not to my knowledge, but something like that xkcd scenario seems like the best explanation. Maybe a tech-savvy neighbor kid detected the wi-fi in my Jeep and did some sort of exploit to send the message?

12

That would freak me right out.