Clicked on a link in a phishing/spam email

Yesterday while trying to clear out my junk mail, I found a bunch of repeated spam emails about my iCloud Storage being full. I knew immediately the email was fake as I'd upgraded only a few months ago and the emails were poorly written, but in trying to report them I accidentally opened and clicked a link in one of the emails because my phone is incredibly slow. I tried to close the webpage as quickly as I could but the only pop up I saw before doing so was a blank screen that said 'It worked!'. I panicked, closed the tab and restarted my phone straight away.


After some google searches, a few discussions online seemed to suggest it should be fine as long as I couldn't see anything new in my downloads folder or any new accounts on my phone, neither of which I could find, and also suggested restarting the phone, which I had done. It also said relatively new phones/phones on the newest iOS should be safe, and though I updated it within the last month I'm running an iPhone 11 so I don't know if that changes anything. I hoped all would be fine until today, while using my phone I encountered a sudden random popup asking me to input my phone's passcode for 'iCloud storage'. What is my next move to secure my data/check for any malware on my phone?!

iPhone 11

Posted on Feb 9, 2026 6:59 AM

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2 replies

Feb 9, 2026 7:18 AM in response to moonlighttt

Correct, clicking a link in an email/message is not going to install any malware on your phone. At times, you will need to enter your Passcode for iCloud storage because your data is end to end encrypted using that Passcode. Is there anything else you recently have done, such as:

  • Change your Apple Account Password
  • Change your Passcode
  • Restore from a backup
  • Added a Developer Profile at Settings > General > Device Management

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Clicked on a link in a phishing/spam email

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