I've lost control of my phone! Settings change when I'm using it. I need help

[211SSW]

I've disabled everything in Smart Actions but nothing helps. I'm seriously concerned but really annoyed. For instance, I can be using the phone, reading messages for instance & due to this ongoing issue, at beginning of my use, I've taught myself to first check & always need to change my volumes to all the way on & the ringtone for phone constantly automatically changes to " silent" which is not a setting that I would ever use.
It would help if I would be told other apps that could alter my settings.
I got a message from a friend that said he thought I had been hacked, due to type of message he received via me but I really thought it was associated with a Facebook message - I admit I dismissed his comment, thinking why in the world would anyone target me but now that I'm feeling like someone else is in charge of my phone, what does a person do if that's a concern & how do you know?
Assuming I just have a couple apps that are intrusive & change settings - please give me some idea of what to consider & I'll uninstall all of those. In fact, I don't understand why I haven't uninstalled Smart Actions. I likely will as soon as I'm finished here.

[YellowJacket]

I have been reading through all of your posts from last this morning, and I agree with your friend and think something has been "hacked".

The best thing to do at this point would be to try a hard reset and wipe your phone. Once that is done, you can set up all of your apps and contacts by going through the initial lsetup of your phone again. Just to be safe, I would back up all of your pictures and stuff on your SD card.

The other possibility is that your gmail account may have been hacked too so you ought to log onto it through your computer and change your password.

David

[Martin030908]

If you have any question, hard reset. I wouldn't even attempt individual uninstalls. Wipe your phone and data, start fresh.
Before you install your apps again provide a list of what apps so that you can get feedback on what you're using, see if we can find a culprit.

Also, I would highly recommend setting up the Two-Step Authentication for your g-Mail account.

... Factory reset/data wipe! without question.

[MasterGadgets]

+1 on the factory reset and the Two-Step Authentication.