Virus pop up on iPhone's Safari, MobiDefense site had Apple's logo on it, should I worry?

AntREdD wrote:

thank you, but is there any way of telling for future info if the device is actually compromised

Yes: Answer these questions:

• Have you jailbroken the phone?
• Have you let someone have unsupervised access to your phone while it was unlocked for more than a short time?
• Are you a high-profile activist, journalist, or politician whose data would be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire?

If the answer to all of those questions is "No," your device has not been compromised.

No, you do not have a virus, and your device is perfectly safe. It's just a popup from a website. It's trying to trick you into giving away money or information. Close it and avoid websites that allow that sort of thing.

AntREdD wrote:

as I said, it said “clean device” on the website, I clicked it out of curiosity and I know that wasn’t smart, is there any chance that anything will happen because of that

Your curiosity is going to draw more scams, more spam, and more engagement, and you’re more valuable to re-sell to other spammers and scammers, so yes, things can happen.

Technically, here, likely no malware happened, not unless you downloaded and installed something, or not unless your iPhone is not running the current iOS.

Remote websites cannot “scan” your iPhone, and if they could they’d just go directly and steal what they wanted. Scans are deeply intrusive activities. Installed apps can’t scan storage either, though they can mess with and can scan your network activities. (Which is why add-on VPN apps get advertised everywhere.)

To be clear… There is malware around and if you’re engaged in a business or activity or have access to classified to sensitive or financial data, that is interesting to some well-funded entities, there can be actual attacks here. That’s been rare and targeted, based on the available information.

What not to do? Some folks I know “unsubscribed” from spam (which served to confirm the email address was good and the user is quite possibly unwary, which makes the address way more valuable to re-sell), and otherwise engaged with the miscreants, and that engagement then #served to drew masses of spam and scams upon themselves, and made their contact info more valuable to sell.

Password re-use is another way to get in deep trouble, too. One copy gets exposed in some server breach somewhere, and miscreants try those same credentials everywhere. See Settings > Passwords > Security Recommendations for your risks here, or the website haveibeenpwned.com. There are email scams based on sending you copies of your old or breached passwords, too.

Malware from many years ago worked differently, got installed differently, and was blocked differently. That’s not how current malware works. Current malware and adware often gets installed by the user (spoofed appa, cracked apps, “free stuff” and “coupons!”, “protects against hackers and viruses!”, etc), and then collects your data and activities, and more ads, etc. Some if the better-known macOS add-on anti-malware was caught selling personally-identified web browsing and web purchasing activities, for instance. Malware ain’t a Windows Virus anymore. It’s a big business.

Not stupid to ask. You're fine! You have an iPhone. One less thing to worry about.

Besides, you had the forethought to ask about it here. For everyone with the wisdom to do that, there are probably thousands of others who don't. They are the hapless victims scam artists seek to exploit.

It's a scam.

Scams are very popular. You don't have to believe everything that pops up on a phone, you don't have to answer every knock on the door, you don't have to listen to robocalls, you have to believe everything you read on the "news"... etc.

Read Phony "tech support" / "ransomware" popups and web pages - Apple Community.

You clicked "clean device"... but then what happened?

Did you call someone? Did you install something? Did you provide a credit card number, your Apple ID credentials, codes, passwords, your bank account, your mother's maiden name, your favorite color... etc? That's the kind of thing these scams are seeking.

AntREdD wrote:

No, it just redirected to a blank website,

Then nothing has happened. I certainly understand the curiosity, though!