How do I ensure my iPhone and linked devices are secure after a suspicious McAfee pop-up?

Confused_owl wrote:

Hi, I was reading an article on my iPhone yesterday when all of a sudden a background of the iPhone Setting screen with McAfee on it & alarm noise blocked my view. The message said that my device is being wire tapped & asked if I want to test it. In my surprise & without thinking, I pressed the test button & then another question came up asking if there is a noise, & then I pressed 'Yes.' I could see there was a red bar moving, as if it was loading. Before it could finish, I thought that this is wrong so I closed the website & cleared the history. I did not enter account details or any other details. I am worried that this might have affected my iPhone, the Apps in it, & my other device that is linked to the same Apple account. I regularly update my software & updated it again afterwards. Could you please advise of what to do? Thank you.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Virus or hacked

Your iPhone neither has a virus, nor has it been hacked. But whatever site or app you were using sent that message intended to scare you into buying software (McAfee) you don't need, for a problem you don't have. Sounds like they did just that. Scare you. You didn't need to anything but close out of that less than credible page and go on with your day. I don't know where you were reading the article, but I would avoid using them again. They are paid by scammers to try to scare you into buying such worthless tools.

Read this --> Recognize and avoid social engineering schemes including phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

Welcome and thank you for reaching out. 🤗

What you read was a fake popup message written in simple HTML (HyperText Markup Language) that looks like this:

alert("This is a pop-up message!");

A website does not have the ability to "scan" your Apple device. The only thing they can do is identify what device is accessing their website.

Don’t believe a clever animation displaying a red bar loading scam.

Learn how to recognize and avoid social engineering schemes including phishing messages, phony support calls and other scams.

You can relax, ignore the phony popup messages and enjoy your day. 🤗

Take care! 👋🏼😉

Smiliñ 😎 Brian | Community Volunteer

Confused_owl wrote:

Hi, I was reading an article on my iPhone yesterday when all of a sudden a background of the iPhone Setting screen with McAfee on it & alarm noise blocked my view. The message said that my device is being wire tapped & asked if I want to test it. In my surprise & without thinking, I pressed the test button & then another question came up asking if there is a noise, & then I pressed 'Yes.' I could see there was a red bar moving, as if it was loading. Before it could finish, I thought that this is wrong so I closed the website & cleared the history. I did not enter account details or any other details. I am worried that this might have affected my iPhone, the Apps in it, & my other device that is linked to the same Apple account. I regularly update my software & updated it again afterwards. Could you please advise of what to do? Thank you.

It is extremely unlikely that you have a virus, or that you were hacked.

A virus is a type of malware that works by spreading copies of itself to other programs or scripts. The iPhone's operating system is very locked-down. Even if an infected app got into the App Store and you downloaded that app, it would not have the ability to modify files containing other apps. A "virus" that cannot spread is not very much of a virus. A supposed "anti-virus" or "security" app would not be permitted to modify other apps either. Thus, an "anti-virus" app which could not remove viruses (that are not there because they would not have been able to spread in the first place) is not very much of an "anti-virus" app.

What you saw was a scam ad, presented by a Web site that you were visiting, or by an app that you were running. Scammers and dishonest advertisers know that people are frightened of "viruses" and of being "hacked" – and their messages often play upon those fears in an effort to get you to pay for useless software or to trick you into calling the scammers directly (so they can gather the information they need to rip you off directly).

If you can identify which Web site or app presented this message to you, you may want to think twice about going to that particular site or using that particular app in the future.

I could see there was a red bar moving.....

Another trick to try to fool you into thinking that your iPhone was actually being scanned. It wasn't. The "scan" was a simple video which had nothing to do with your iPhone.

No one can even access your phone unless they have your Apple Account and information. Even if they do, they could not "scan" your phone remotely.

Just delete the messages and move on. Keep on the lookout for more scams. They are everywhere.