Amazon winner pop ups on my iPhone

I got this virus from playing a game linked in facebook. To fix clear Siri as described earlier but that did not fix it for me. Then go to facebook settings and turn off access to a game provider called BBQ and any games you may suspect and/or don’t use.

facebook> settings> settings & privacy > settings> apps & web sites> logged in with facebook - turn them OFF

Download Malwarebytes for iPhone. It’s an Apple approved anti-spam and anti-popup app that will prevent this problem. It’s available on the App Store and it’s free. It is also available for Macs.

The steps from Apple worked back when they were published, but the bad guys found a way around them. Try this: Dealing with Safari popups that won't go away

Does that include going to the app store and installing an ad blocker that says they can handle javascript browser hijacks?

sorry, but gcartin is right. the same site that gives me the “congratulations” spam within a minute of being on the page in safari works just fine in firefox.

First you should get your caps lock key fixed. Posting in all caps is tantamount to shouting and is hard to read and rude.

Lastly install Malwarebytes on your iPhone and run it.

“Infection” isn’t quite the right word. Most websites contract with ad placement agencies and really have no control or knowledge over what ad content is served on their sites. Even the agencies frequently don’t know. So it is very easy for an underhanded advertiser to place invasive ads on a site. Many otherwise respectable sites have delivered malware at times - wsj.com, nytimes.com, Forbes.com (several times for Forbes). It would not surprise me that yahoo has also, considering that they are now owned by Verizon, and Verizon has a poor track record, even infecting routers at one timE and inserting ads into cell data streams.

Yes, no amount of deleting your data and rebooting your phone will have any impact on it. This is a vulnerability in either or both IOS and safari that allows a pop up to hikack the browser. It behooves Apple to understand the vulnerability and offer a feature or patch to close or better manage it.

I have noticed that if you just close the browser window for the offending site and then go right back to the site, it does not recur for some time period, like a day or two. The problem is that it’s infecting many many sites now. I have it occur on multiple sites daily.

You can actually navigate back to the site you were previously on. Instead of clicking the back button like you normally would, hold down on it and your history will pop up. Then click the url that you were previously on.

Deleting your history is not going to do anything. Also be wary of advice on here like to delete certain apps etc... That won't do anything either. Apple has to address this. There is a vulnerability in ios and safari that allows the browser to be hijacked. Malware companies have figured it out and are now proliferating the exploit. I get it a few times a day now, including on reputable sites.

Well I’ve been doing a lot of research and it is something to do with Apple/Google integration and JavaScript. I uninstalled Facebook messenger, Tapatalk and all 3rd party communication applications and I have JavaScript enabled and so far no more issues.

If you have any forum or communication apps delete them but you may need clear your browser cache. It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact issue because iOS is closed source.

OK I’ll try that. I had called Apple this morning and they told me to go to Safari—>advanced—>website data—>clear all. She said cookies are attached there. I also reset my ad data! So thanks....I will see if that works. Sometimes it takes several weeks before the pop up starts appearing again. I did notice on my iPad that once I cleared the website data...my iPad seems to load web pages faster.

That is correct Lawrence. Do not trust the page that pops up. I just close the entire tab - go through the cycle of clearing history and resetting the ad id. That should take care of it until some data gets into Safari once more that triggers it.

I had tried that with my wife’s phone but as soon as she went back to the problem site, for her it was TheHill.com, the same thing happened. So the real solution is to avoid those sites. But if there are multiple ones that you want to use, then you have no choice. For her it was only that one site and the ad blocker took care of it.

I agree. I don’t know what settings are available on Android devices but I look at this issue the same way I do spam phone calls. Apple will not be able to eliminate either issue. With phone calls you can register on the Do Not Call registry, hasn’t helped me a lot. Or install a call blocker which will help some. At least it’s a minimal problem for me now. It was a major annoyance previously.

With ads such as this you can complain to the sites directly which may eventually help. Or install an ad blocker and and ease most of your frustration. Trashing Apple about something that seems to be a hazard of our digital lifestyle seems to be a bit pointless. If Android has a way of dealing with this then maybe we’ll see Apple implement a future solution. For now I’m not holding my breath.