How can I get rid of a Congratulations-you-won.com-yourprize.com pop up window on my iPad? It wants me to answer ok but I'm afraid it is a virus.

Hi Forensic Ornithologist. It may be staying in the FaceBook app, and just using the iOS webkit. If it is, then the FaceBook app may be managing the data. If it doesn't have a way of clearing its cache, you may have to uninstall the app to clear the data.

All this cache and data deleting didn't help at all, but here is what helped me for good:

SOLUTION: It's one of the APPS that you gave permission WITHIN facebook some (long) time ago, that is injecting these rogue popup ads.

I don't know which one exactly but when I went to:

Facebook Preferences > Account Preferences > Apps 
... there were dozens of old apps and even games that I couldn't remember ever to have used. Also old iOS games that asked for facebook permissions in the past. (some of these almost 10 years old) 
I deleted them almost all (especially games and apps that I have no clue what they do or did). I kept the ones that are definitely legit. 
I had no more popups on neither iPhone nor iPad in the last days. Finally!

This also explains why this also happens on brand new iOS (and also Android) devices and other people are not affected by these popups at all:

It's not in/on your device. It's within Facebook, a rogue app that is injecting the ads/popups.

I have been getting this of recent as well. I thought it might have been an app I installed in the last few weeks even though they weren't anything suspicious so I deleted them, cleared cache and all that jazz. Still was getting it in particular on white pages. So, what I did was download the Norton Ad Blocker app (I chose Norton only because I know of Norton and trusted the name) and configured it in Safari. So far so good. It doesn't happen on my computer as I have all kinds of ad blockers and what not on the browser. Just for yuks, I just tried the site with Chrome on my ipad with no blocker and the Congratulations popped up. Now in incognito mode and no Congratulations. So either use a blocker (seems the pop up blocker in both Safari and in Chrome do not work to prevent this) or try incognito or private browsing modes.

Yes you have to clear your safari data first. If a website that you like going to is hacked with this virus, then go to Safari, advanced and turn off JavaScript. You can always turn JavaScript back on later after you've concluded you're surfing on that particular website. If there is a contact us link, then notify the website that they have been hacked.

How on earth do I do that? I clear my cookies and browser history after every one of these attacks and it doesn't stop them from happening within a few hours. CBS News, NYT, The Hill, ZeroHedge, are the main culprits, but it can happen anywhere with advertisements.

I think I may have found a solution. Try this.....

Settings --> Safari --> Advanced - scroll down to the bottom and turn off the "JavaScript" option - now I have everything off under "Advanced" (which is ironic in a disappointing way - having advanced features that are unusable).

Issue: Besides phone calls and texting, I mostly use my iPhone for finance and job researching - no ****, no FB nor other social media. When I went to my IPhone's 'Stocks' icon, as i having been doing most days for years without any problem, I check various stocks on "Finance_Yahoo_Com" and browse their articles to see how they (and the economy) are doing. Yesterday evening I started getting the so called "Congratulations Apple User...Amazon Gift Card...." notice (from "Free-Award_Com") with no way of getting out of it - except their deceptive "close" option that brings you to the Free A.... web site. This is after browsing articles from the usual standard financial sites (Accesswire, GlobalNewsWire, MarketRealist, etc.) that are listed on Finance_Yahoo.

I lacked the time to deal with it Sunday night and would try fixing it today. Today was the same thing, any finance article quickly brought that message so I was unable to read any article, also unable to search Safari, as the message kept appearing about 2 or 3 seconds after opening the page. I spent several hours trying different options until turning off the JavaScript option which stopped it for me, I can now browse (AND READ) any finance article nows and have done so for the past hour with no issue.

I went to my Mac and searched the web for solutions but the suggestions were of no help (clear your history / website data and reboot, etc.) but the problem still occurred.

What I tried:

- Went to Settings --> News and turned off most of the settings (notifications, cellular data, show previews, etc) "features" (I found this annoying anyways, so I am glad these are off).

- Went to Settings --> Safari and turned most of these off too (search engine suggestions, safari suggestions, etc.).

- I then selected "Clear history and website data' then powered down the iPhone and brought it back up. Went back to yahoo's stocks icon, selected the same articles and the same problem continued.

Solution: I gave it one last try, went to Settings --> Safari --> and scrolled all the way down to "Advanced" and turned off "JavaScript" (everything else was off), went back to yahoo's stocks icon, selected the same articles and the problem is gone! I could finally read the financial articles again!

I wrote this up and saved it as a draft in my email account - just in case a friend needs it - and thought I would share here as well.

Hope this fixes it for you!

This does help, but only for awhile. The problem only occurs when I click on Yahoo sports stories. If I clear internet settings that helps me get to a couple of stories before the problem occurs again.

On my iPad I had the Congratulations pop up and a four viruses one.

I tried a soft reset (turning off) and clearing Safari history but neither gave a lasting solution. The soft reset is a good, short term solution.

What seems to have worked is deleting Google then downloading it from the Appstore.

I did the same with Chrome just in case.

So far so good.

I suspect I gained the pop ups when I down loaded a soduko game from an offer on another game, not via the Appstore. Its just a guess but I will not be doing that again.

I got rid of the soduko game too.

Thank you, I tried all the previous steps but the only thing that worked was this.

The only problem now is that since I started getting the popup I had updated a page on my website and now whenever anyone tries to go to my website they get the popup! If they contact me I can tell them the above steps you mentioned, if they are keen to access the site, but what about the ones who don't contact me and just give up. I'm worried of losing business because people can't get past the popup when I share links on Facebook, etc. Is it only links clicked via FB that are the problem?

Any ideas how to actually prevent the popup appearing on my sites to other people?

I had just posted that clearing my settings didn't work for me, when saw the post above me about turning off "Java Script" in the Advanced settings for Safari. And the popups stopped! I turned the Java Script settings back on, and the popups have yet to come back. Nice job, JCM4S!!

I suggest you use the program created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor. It will provide a snapshot of your system which we can analyze to possibly determine the cause of your problem. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. On the screen with Options, please open Options and check the bottom 2 boxes before running. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown.

Etrecheck – System Information

No...sorry. It worked for me on 2 of my devices, sorry it didn't work for you. One thing I found was that the problem only occurred on a single site. So there is likely some type of Java script running on the site that is causing the issue. Maybe it was just coincidence that the site was fixed at the same time I turned off and turned on java scripting on my phone. I don't know. By the way...did you turn off Java scripting, then go to the site to see if the pop up appeared before turning it on again? This is what I did...and may be a requirement to make this work. Good luck. I know how frustrating this is.

Also...if this doesn't work, it couldn't hurt to let the owner of the site know that they have a problem with some rogue java script on their site. Maybe they will fix it....maybe.

When I go to www.statesman.com/epaper using Safari on my iPhone 6s, the browser is hijacked by a popup that says "Congratulations! Click OK to secure your spot." It only happens on www.statesman.com/epaper. The browser is redirected to:

https :// www.facebook.com-walmart.com/ Gift-card? eid=mm,ruc&pid=m.statesman.com&did=5255360255282663701&gCs4QMu=21551796767

I think this must have something to do with JavaScript, because when I turn off JavaScript I don't get the ad but I also don't get the content for the site.

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My solution seemed to have worked for a couple of days but did not solve the problem.

I think that it was a subsequent Apple update that really fixed it.

I have since received an email regarding this conversation that I do not intend to open.

Assuming that you are using the Facebook browser and not opening the link in Safari, go into the Facebook app settings and in there you will find the settings for the browser and clear the data for that. .