Level 1

19 points

User getting "your system is heavily damaged by four virus!" messages

An acquaintance emailed me to say that she is getting a virus message when she 'attempts to go to Google' on her iPad. I pressed for more information and learned that she is opening Safari, navigating to Google, and then getting the following message (I attached the screenshot, at the bottom of the post):

Your system is heavily damaged by Four virus!

We detect that your Apple iPad is 28.1% DAMAGED because of four harmful viruses from recent adult sites. Soon it will damage your phone's SIM card and will corrupt your contacts, photos, data, applications, etc.

If you do not remove the virus now , it will cause severe damage to your phone . Here's what you NEED to do (step by step ):

...

Install Applock for free on Google Play!

This friend is a senior citizen ... and is someone who definitely would not purposely browse to adult sites. I suggested she ignore the message, cycle the power, and see if the message goes away. So far, it hasn't re-appeared.

This is obviously a scam, designed to get users to install the Applock application. I Google'd the message and learned that this is a common issue on Android devices; however, I'm confused why and how it appeared on this person's iPad. Any thoughts? Should I have her perform any further diagnostics?

iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iOS 10.3.2, null

Posted on May 22, 2017 7:30 AM

Top-ranking reply

vbranyik

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Oct 24, 2017 1:15 PM

I believe this is being generated by malicious code running in an ad on the site being accessed.

Close Safari (or whatever browser), double press the home button, swipe on the browser to terminate the app and reload by reopening the browser. That will clear the message until the next time you run into another compromised ad.

Rinse and repeat when that happens.

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27 replies

King_Penguin

Level 10

334,324 points

Jul 31, 2017 5:55 AM in response to dylanfromdurham

As well as clearing Safari's history and website data, try closing Safari via the iPad's taskbar and then do a soft-reset/reboot of the iPad.

For a hacked router : http://www.thesafemac.com/how-to-manage-a-hacked-wireless-router/

gjarboni

Level 1

4 points

Aug 17, 2017 11:01 PM in response to cgwaters

I'm getting the same problem and in my case it's at a deeper level then just clicking on a bad link. The "Your computer is seriously infected ..." pops up at random. A few days ago, from Facebook I opened a NY Times article. Seconds later with my finger floating above the screen, the virus message popped up. Usually it takes longer and is when I'm viewing click-Britt things. But this time it happened on nytimes.com, so I'm convinced that something is lurking under the covers.

I'd cleared everything from Safari before this happened.

Please let me know if you want me to test anything.

Thanks,

Jason M.

gjarboni

Level 1

4 points

Aug 18, 2017 1:34 PM in response to King_Penguin

I forgot to mention that I work in Computer Networking so I've already done all of the above. My instance is on a phone not an iPad, but it's been rebooted, most recently for the iOS update that blocked the Broadcom exploit. The problem persists. I can't believe that this is a virus of some kind, but I don't know of (haven't been able to find) anti-virus tools for iOS devices. 😟

Thanks for replying/reading,

Jason M.

King_Penguin

Level 10

334,324 points

Aug 18, 2017 11:40 PM in response to gjarboni

There aren't any anti-virus tools for iOS devices, unless you've jailbroken it I'm not aware of any viruses that affect them.

Do you get the same problems when on a different network (assuming that you are using wifi) ?

gjarboni

Level 1

4 points

Aug 19, 2017 1:30 PM in response to King_Penguin

I haven't checked, but I don't get the problem in Chrome, so I don't think it's network related. But I will work without Wifi and see if I get the message.

BTW, clicking close and holding down the back arrow allows you to go back to the previous page that doesn't have the virus message. That didn't use to be the case.

I'll follow up tomorrow or sooner if I get the message on 4G.

Thanks,

Jason M.

gjarboni

Level 1

4 points

Aug 20, 2017 12:04 PM in response to gjarboni

So far, no virus message while using 4G. I don't get this on any other devices, Android, Macbook Pro, Mac Mini, Windows VM, Linux VM. It could just be luck. One time it popped up after 67 questions of a quiz. But I'll keep reporting.

My WAP's are Engenius and my firewall is m0n0wall. I don't think either of those would be good targets for hacking. But maybe someone else knows something I don't.

Thanks,

Jason M.

stedman1

Level 10

264,496 points

May 22, 2017 7:33 AM in response to cgwaters

Any such message will be a scam.

Phony "tech support" / "ransomware" popups and web pages

cgwaters Author

Level 1

19 points

May 22, 2017 7:35 AM in response to macjack

Thanks. What would cause the message to appear within Safari when simply browsing to Google.com (as the background of the screenshot indicates)?

Demo

Level 10

166,747 points

May 22, 2017 7:36 AM in response to cgwaters

".... install for free on Google Play? Not on an iOS device, you can't. Obviously it's a scam.

macjack

Level 10

111,242 points

May 22, 2017 7:40 AM in response to Demo

Also AppLock for Mac. EDIT: You're right, not an iOS either.

http://en.freedownloadmanager.org/Mac-OS/AppLock.html

King_Penguin

Level 10

334,324 points

Aug 18, 2017 12:04 AM in response to gjarboni

As well as clearing Safari's cache and history via Settings > Safari, close Safari via the iPad's taskbar and do a soft-reset/reboot of the iPad

gjarboni

Level 1

4 points

Aug 22, 2017 3:30 PM in response to gjarboni

Okay, it happened on LTE. Took the whole day, but it did. And it was on a reputable website.

Jason M.

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User getting "your system is heavily damaged by four virus!" messages