mega.viral-content.site POP-UP

Have you ever heard of "Process of elimination"? That's what we're doing. Getting upset won't change anything or help.

Next step. Press the home button twice to open the application switcher. Slide all apps up and off the screen to close every app you have running, so the only thing left is the desktop.

Unless the iPhone's OS itself has somehow (extremely unlikely) been compromised, the issue should stop. Launch your third party apps one at a time. See if the problem returns. If it does, the last app launched is the problem. Close it again and delete it from your iPhone.

My money is on Pokémon Go.

BitDefender has that site listed as a Malware warning. Malware, by definition, is "MALicious softWARE intended to damage or disable computer systems".

While this new popup thing may or may not be malicious, let's not state that an un-jailbroken iPhone is safe from worms/virus/trojans. It's not. AceDeciever is a well known trojan that affected non jailbroken iPhones. Don't kid yourself into thinking that something similar or even worse cannot happen again.

Be safe with new app installations (ie; read reviews, and if there aren't any then wait for some before installing. Be cautious of fake reviews also). Don't install apps that are not from the official app store. Either use the Brave Browser (specifically made to block ads and protect you in other ways), or install ad blocking apps for Safari/Chrome such as Refine and Blocker+.

I have Pokemon Go. No issues.

AceDeciever

You left out it's very difficult to get, and you have to be okay with the idea of stealing software. You first have to install Aisi Helper, a Windows app on your PC, then attach your iPhone to the PC using the Windows version of iTunes in order for the Windows app to infect the iPhone. The purpose of it is for people to download App Store apps they didn't pay for.

Why is it people leave out how difficult it is for the few known pieces of malware to get on your iPhone in the first place? Aisi Helper is also aimed specifically at Chinese users. A country where stealing software is practically considered normal.

I have the same problem.

So far I've tried:

I've tested all suggestions in this thread

I've also deleted my most recently installed apps (even though they were all from reliable developers and didn't include Pokemon Go)

Turning off Javascript works (but I'd rather not do that in the long term)

I have the issue both with Wifi and using mobile data

My wife's iPhone doesn't have the issue on the same Wifi-network

The issue also appeared through twitter (when I opened a link in twitter to a major newspaper site in Sweden it rerouted to mega.content....

I've tried resetting network settings as well

Any suggestions?

Actually, that's quite helpful. Since turning off JavaScript stops the issue (not really surprising), then it's a web site that's causing it. Cookies cannot use JavaScript.

Also a helpful test that your wife's iPhone doesn't have the same issue on the same Wifi. So it's not a matter of a compromised router.

So try this with Safari. Rather then simply dragging Safari off the screen to close the app, close all open tabs. You'll be down to one remaining site. Pinch in to cause that last page to display against a black background (which is where you would normally scroll through lots of tabbed sites). Press the X on that page to close it.

It this point, all web sites should be closed and Safari is just showing a blank page waiting for you to go somewhere on the web. Turn JavaScript back on. With no sites open, you should also not be getting any popups.

Hi wiebevdw,

I also had the same problem, and managed to get rid of it, what I did was :

-close safari

-delete the history and data

-block all the cookies

-turn my phone off

I think that what actually worked was blocking the cookies, but maybe it was all the steps combined, so here they are. I unlocked the cookies a day after to check if it was still happening and the issue was gone.

Hope it will help

I tried this and as long as I stay on the blank page nothing happens. However when I try to visit one of the websites that previously rerouted me to the malware website it still does that.

After I tried your suggestion I also tried OlusiaS' suggestion (i.e. blocking all cookies) which also works. I'm not sure if that helps narrow down the cause of all of this.

However when I try to visit one of the websites that previously rerouted me to the malware website it still does that.

While it's unlikely some sort of malware has actually managed to break through the closed iOS system to infect Safari, or the OS itself, it would have to be the web sites you're visiting.

Close all web sites again so Safari is blank. Go to a few sites that absolutely will not generate a popup or redirect on their own. Such as these:

www.apple.com

www.adobe.com

www.quark.com

www.google.com

If the screen stays clear of garbage, then there's nothing wrong with the iPhone or iOS itself. If even these sites somehow produce unwanted popups or redirects, then you, and others mentioned may have run across something new that still manages to affect a non jailbroken device.

You could try clearing and blocking all cookies, but that shouldn't make a difference since that's not what cookies do, or even are supposed to be able to do.

The problem has always been restricted to just a few websites (apologies if I wasn't clear on that).

Examples are:

ajax.netwerk.to

www.farjestadbk.se

The first is a forum that I've been using since 1999 the other the official website of a major ice hockey team in Sweden. Both sites have 3rd party adds on them, maybe there's something there that's causing the malware website to open?

Ah. Then it's definitely the sites. The owners themselves may have added the redirects and popups for a monetary reason; the sites may have been compromised and the owners don't realize it, so haven't fixed them; or maybe (not likely) the Internet hub these sites use (shared hosting service) has been compromised and affects all sites using that service.

Okay, I have this issue also. It started right after I upgraded to the new iOS. I have an iPhone 5S. This problem occurs on sites like GameFaqs, Giantbomb and some Finnish gaming sites. It has something to do with the ads. Nothing else helps but an adblocker. I keep removing data from my Safari, it still happens. It's not my router because I did a complete factory reset on it and that didn't help. So, this is an problem within iPhones. And this is a serious issue.

While it certainly is convincing circumstantial evidence, it still isn't the iPhone or iOS. We've updated both or our iPads and my wife's iPhone to iOS 9.3.3. No popups or redirects of any kind. If the issue were on Apple's end, just about every user with the latest version of iOS installed would have the same problem.

I have this problem too. I use an ad-blocker to avoid it, but for me the problem is both in safari and the facebook app's browser. One site I've noticed gets the pop-up 100% for me is cnet.com.. Could it be malvertising targetting iPhones?

I don't know if you remember about that infamous iOS problem from a year or so ago. When peoples iPhones e-mails, AppStore, iTunes, music etc. just stopped working after an iOS update. I was one of many who had that problem. New iOS fixed that problem. I'm saying, that this could easily be linked into that, even if it doesn't effect everyone. I just know that this is an problem occuring on iPhones only. And since last thursday I've been trying to fix this problem. And this problem started right after I installed the new iOS.

I don't know if you remember about that infamous iOS problem from a year or so ago. When peoples iPhones e-mails, AppStore, iTunes, music etc. just stopped working after an iOS update.

Yup, I remember that one. I've been trying to replicate it here, but can't. cnn.com does nothing unusual. I also tried the two wiebevdw has consistent problems with; ajax.netwerk.to and www.farjestadbk.se .

The first had a strange popup asking if it was okay to save cookies. Don't know why it would ask since the iPad is already set to accept cookies from sites I visit. I refused to touch the button to okay it and went on to the second site. As noted, it's a sports site. It did generate a popup over the main page, but it was clearly produced by the same site as the info was related to it. If you go in and out of the site, it produces various types of popups, but they're all being served up intentionally by that site. Nothing nefarious going on.

This is an older iPad 3, and while it runs 9.3.3, it doesn't support functions newer units do. I can't even install an ad blocker on it as they all require newer hardware than what I have.

No doubt it's beyond annoying for those having issues to the point of not being able to figure out how to stop it no matter what they do. Buy why to such an overall small percentage of iOS 9.3.3 users? What's common to those?