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

I have the same problem, but none of the solutions suggested so far have worked. I'm using an iPad Air 2. iOS 10.3.3

I'm struggling to put an end to the "Your System is Heavily Damaged by the Four Virus" pop-up on Safari. It appears regularly when I am reading articles on thehill.com, a reputable news website. It does not always appear, but comes fairly consistently. I do not recall it ever appearing on any other website. Here's are two screenshots:

I of course close the window every time it pops up, and do not follow any of the links.

In Safari preferences, I have taken all of the following steps:

(1) Cleared history and website data

(2) Under "Advanced" I removed all website data again; however, there was still a lengthy list of websites shown in this window. I went through and individually selected each and deleted it.

(3) Blocked cookies from all websites

(4) Set the "block pop-up" to on.

After all that, I returned to the website and the pop-up appeared again.

I do not have an ad-blocking extension installed. I have not "jail broken" my iPad (at least not knowingly). I have not installed any apps that were not from the Apple app store. However, I have certainly transferred files (not apps) of unknown provenance from my mac.

My hunch is that this is somehow associated with the website, not my browser. But (a) that seems odd since it is a reputable website, and (b) I want to be certain.

I have seen mentioned on another forum that the firmware on my modem/router may be infected? Is that really a thing? Can it be fixed? Any guidance on that? What information do I need and where do I share it?

This is a scam. Ignore. No further action required.

Identify and report phishing emails and other suspicious messages - Apple Support

cgwaters wrote:

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?

It's a common scam on all devices, in this case selling AppLock.

If the only web page open in Safari when that pop-up appears is Google, and there definitely aren't other pages open in other "tabs," this is most likely a network problem. The network hardware may have been compromised.

Another alternative is iOS adware, which is pretty uncommon and generally requires that you jailbreak your device. I'm guessing your friend would not have done such a thing, though you never know.

cgwaters wrote:

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

Advertisement. Google can't guarantee there are no malicious ads on their website. Every now and then there are a few bad ads such as the one you saw. Clear Safari history and website data. That's all you have to do.

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/

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.

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.

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) ?

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.

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.

I had the same pop up, after chatting with an apple representative, he said that it is simply a pop up and apples systems are strong enough to block it from damaging the device. If you chat with a representative form apple, they can walk you through how to block pop ups like this.

this same thing is happening on my SE, not an iPad, and it's while playing solitaire (on an app, not in safari, but it opens safari to show me the 'virus alert') - it was popping up every couple minutes tonite driving me crazy. I don't know what you mean by closing via taskbar - does that work on an iPhone too? What I was doing was double clicking the home button so I could slide safari up off the screen. Then i turned the phone off and back on, but it didn't help. Is there something with the Solitaire Deluxe app that could be causing it?? I didn't even have Safari open at the time.

I don't know what you mean by closing via taskbar - does that work on an iPhone too?

Yes, that's what sliding the app up does

It might be the app, especially if you aren't having the same problems in any other app. Is the app if you use it when in Airplane mode ?

I have the same problem it just popped out that I have four viruses on my phone because of the recent adult sites and the fact that I didn’t know what to do Since I’m just a 13 years old i randomly clicked OK and I was trying hard to follow the instructions written there but I doesn’t work I couldn’t download what they ate telling me what to do so i just searched in safari about how to get rid of that virus and when I read your comments to not click ok and it was a scam I was relieved but the thing is I clicked OK.Is that a problem???? Or do I just leave it and not think about it???