Congratulations Apple User Pop up won't go away

I am seeing the same problem

on multiple websites (CNN, FOX News, local television stations, etc). I have tried clearing history and data to no avail. I have tried multiple WiFi networks and LTE; it happens on all of them and does not seem to be network related. I have an iPhone 6s on iOS 11.2.1. Seems to happen either when I open safari, or when I touch the screen to scroll (but before I actually start scrolling). Very annoying, indeed.

Apple, where are you on this?!

This is clearly a malicious add hijacking and bypassing every pop up blocker made to date!

If some one can bypass apples systems and make Apple devices vulnerable to bugs, why should anyone keep paying top dollar Apple products?

If we are going to have the same result, we could save some money and buy cheap bug infested android phones.

Again, where are you Apple?

A user on this thread posted something that may help

virus on iPhone?

Basically if you have Safari enabled in iCloud, even if you clear the ad from your local device it reloads from the iCloud...so try the steps in the apple recommended post and see if that helps.

Try this

Double tap the home button and flick the preview for Safari off the screen to force close the app. Close all the apps if you want, it doesnt’ hurt things.

THen go into the settings, safari, and throw away the history.

then force your iPad to reboot by holding down the sleep and home keys for 20 - 30 seconds or so. When you see the silver apple, let go and let it reboot and then try again and see if that clears it away.

Changing to Bing did not work for me. I used to get those “Congratulations” pop ups only once in a blue moon and clearing history and web data did the trick but since “upgrading” to ios11 they are a constant annoyance but only on Yahoo. I do not visit ****. I’m not a gamer. So don’t go there. This is a serious issue that has gotten chronic. No amount of rebooting or clearing works. And, yes, I’ve done these things both on and off WiFi. Nothing works.

I've been having this same issue when I go on a certain retail website so I don't think it's just a Yahoo issue. I am not a techie by any means but believe that the malware attaches itself to a site that is used frequently on the iPad. It only pops up on mine on the same website every time I go on it. Did you find a resolution? I've tried the hard close, wiping out history, restarting, to no avail...

I appreciate any help as this is so frustrating!

Same here I’ve been having this problem for a while. It comes up every few minutes. Yes minutes. I’ve tried exiting of the tab, private and regular browser, and the clearing website data like 3 times. It comes right back with me having to remember the several tabs I had and no success. Apple needs to fix this

I wish I could help. I’m having the same issue. I can’t even complete a job search without having to flick away the whole window. It did not happen very much before, but now it’s all day long, no matter what site I am on. The whole reason I went with an Apple device is because I thought they were more immune to this kind of thing than android devices. In addition Apple sells themselves as a company that makes it easy to get help, troubleshoot and provide fixes quickly. I’m disappointed and hope someone can help me with this issue.

It’s not an apple problem. It’s malicious ads on sites.

Have you tried the above

Double tap the home button and flick the preview for Safari off the screen to force close the app. Close all the apps if you want, it doesnt’ hurt things.

THen go into the settings, safari, and throw away the history.

then force your iPad to reboot by holding down the sleep and home keys for 20 - 30 seconds or so. When you see the silver apple, let go and let it reboot and then try again and see if that clears it away

You can also turn off popups in the safari settings.

@Skydiver119 — i hear you that it is probably malicious ad content, and the reason why it is prevalent on so many different sites is because of common ad networks. That said, I contend it is Apple’s problem. Safaris claims to block pop-ups; it clearly does not in this case. When this happens, the “page back” functionality in Safari does not work to let you get out of it. The ads are doing things that a website should not be capable of doing to your device.

Your advice to stop Safari.app, clear the cache, and restart the device is all over the web and has been tried multiple times to no avail. Thanks, tho!

Whoever said it’s your most visited site is right, I only get the pop ups on msn.com. The free amazon gift card and clearing history didn’t do anything. On iOS 11. Only thing I know should fix is resetting the phone to stock but nobody wants to ldo that. Looks like iOS11 is vulnerable to spam and Apple doesn’t realize it yet.

It’s been reported that if you use a browser other than mobile safari you don’t experience the issue.

Clearing history seems to not work if a person is syncing their safari with iCloud, the ad seems to reload from your iCloud backup, so something else to check.

It does look like mobile safari is vulnerable to these ads.

Thanks for the tip. I always use safari. I just wish Apple would fix this. Yesterday I was trying to read an obituary for someone who passed away, and in the first 5 seconds of my reading this touching and emotional passage, an intrusive “Congratulations! You won a $100 dollar gift card!” Popped up and I had to close the window and try again. It was so inappropriate and shouldn’t be happening for what I pay for this phone.

As was said earlier in this thread, right or wrong on apple’s part, the issue is repeating by being stored in the cloud. If you have safari sharing web tabs across multiple Apple devices that is how this pop up keeps coming back, even though you have deleted your cache and browsing history.

Disable this option, clear safari and you should be good until Apple gets this issue sorted.

Yeah that made sense but it continued to pop up after I cleared, turned off sync, cleared again, etc. adguard is working so far, but it’s a little crazy to have to use a VPN to prevent a specific pop up. Purify and other non-VPN based blockers don’t seem to be able to stop this. Chrome and other browsers are not allowed by apple to block ads, and tbh I’m not crazy about their UIs. And I’d echo a few others in saying that this is essentially a browser hijacker-esque event that could potentially compromise personal info/is a scam and should really be receiving top priority attention from apple- but it’s been happening for months.