"Your system is infected with (3) Viruses” when opening a Safari tab

It's phishing.

Avoid phishing emails, fake 'virus' alerts, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

Force Quit Safari ( command + option + esc keys).Then restart Safari holding the Shift key. If you still have problems Empty Caches (Safari menu > Preferences > Privacy > Remove all website data. (This will also remove history if you do not want to remove History open Safari Preferences > Advanced and check mark “Show Develop Menu” then choose “Empty Caches” from Develop Menu ).

Then go to Safari Preferences > Extensions and check there. If there is an extension delete it.

If the problem persists download and run MalwareBytes. Malwarebytes was developed by one of our own colleagues here in ASC and is about the most proven anti-malware software for Mac.

Victor0436 wrote:

is it true that i have a virus ?

Nope.

Read this link: Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

Calling numbers can be spoofed/forged/faked.

Sending email addresses can be spoofed/forged/faked, too.

Callers lie.

Pop-ups lie.

Spammers lie, too.

More than a few “security” tools are scams.

Anti-malware tools are often sketchy, problematic, and/or privacy messes.

What to do?

Delete the spam or the voicemail or the pop-up.

Enable two-factor authentication on your Apple ID.

Use unique passwords across all accounts.

Keep your software current.

Calls?

Apple won’t call you, unless you’ve recently requested a callback. Apple will lock you out on the Apple servers, and will “just” force you to re-authenticate, or maybe force you to call Apple Support.

Desiree888 wrote:

How to get ride of virus

If your web browser displays annoying pop-ups 

While browsing the web, if you see a pop-up or alert that offers you a free prize or warns you about a problem with your device, don't believe it. These types of pop-ups are usually fraudulent advertisements, designed to trick you into giving the scammer personal information or money.

Don't call the number or follow the links to claim the prize or fix the problem. Ignore the message and simply navigate away from the page or close the entire window or tab.

Click on the following blue text for more of the ways that scammers try to trick all of us:

Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

that-one_girl wrote:

this just recently happened to me and it says I have over 15 viruses on my phone and it says I need to download an app to clean it and I don’t even know if it’s true or secure

What you were reading was and is categorically, totally, completely, utterly rubbish.

Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

Websites cannot scan your device, your Mac, your Windows system. Were that depth of storage scan permissible, that’d be a catastrophe. (On iPhone and iPad, locally-installed apps can’t scan either!) With the sort of storage access necessary to run an actual malware scan, the scammers wouldn’t need to try to scam you into loading their dreck apps for them or into exposing your information to them. If they could sift through everything (they can’t!) they’d just upload (steal) it all. But they can’t. But they can cause you fear—or titillation, or disgust, or curiosity, or the self-doubt arising from gaslighting—to get you to act against your own interests.

godfreedme wrote:

Why are you saying it is a lie?

Because a remote web site has no means to scan an iPad, iPhone, Mac, or Windows client.

None.

A remote host cannot scan an iPad, iPhone, Mac, or Windows system.

Allowing a remote website the degree of intrusive storage access required for a malware scan would be a security catastrophe.

Consider what would happen if miscreants did have complete remote access necessary for that malware "scan". They'd just steal all your data, passwords, everything. Directly. But they're blocked from that access.

Blocked first by the web browser. Web browsers don't allow remote website arbitrary access to your local storage.

On iPad and iPhone, these website "scans" are further blocked by iPadOS and iOS software, as even locally-installed App Store apps do not have complete access to your device contents, and these locally-installed apps cannot scan your storage for locally-installed malware.

Miscreants can and will lie, cheat, and scam regardless of course, seeking profit and power from the ignorant and the unwary.

Those seeking profit from ignorance, gullibility, greed, and other such has a long history within humankind, of course.

Click on the following blue-text link for more information: Scam Pop-ups, Scam Viruses, Scam Receipts… - Apple Community

katheryne227 wrote:

I got a pop up saying that my device is damaged my 75% percent? Some one help?

Scammers lie. Spammers lie. Spam phone calls lie.

Welcome to unregulated capitalism, and to modern advertising.

Ignore it.

Panic-inducing lies do work as advertisements, of course. Viruses! Battery failures! Infected! Account locked! infected! Sketchy-app-or-service-purchase in far-away-place! We-have-your-old-password (from some server breach)!

A remote website cannot scan your iPhone or iPad or Mac battery capacity or battery health, nor can a remote website scan your iPhone or iPad or Mac for malware, etc.

Scam Pop-ups, Scam Viruses, Scam Receipts… - Apple Community

If you want to check your battery health on your iPhone, check Settings > Battery.

Queenpop wrote:

hi what do I have to do if I have had this

Learn more about how you and all of us get targeted for scams.

Otherwise, what to do? Well, nothing. Ignore the pop-up.

Here are some of the many sorts of scams, of which that pop-up was one.

Click here ➡️ Scam Pop-ups, Scam Viruses, Scam Receipts… - Apple Community

Click here ➡️ Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

DanielleHamberry wrote:

I was told I had 2 viruses when I opened a safari browser today and that I was hacked

Yeah, so?

You were presented with and read an advertisement, which did what advertisers using pop-ups often do, they lied to you, using something you inherently fear, in an effort to encourage you to do something unwise for you and/or profitable to them.

In other words, an entirely normal day here on the Internet. Ignore it.

Better and unique passwords, enabling two-factor authentication, regular backups, keeping your device current, these are the tasks that you will want to undertake. The pop-ups won’t tell you about these steps, either.

Pop-ups and websites cannot scan your device. If pop-ups could do that, they’d have complete access to your device and its contents, and could directly steal everything. Apple and every other browser vendor goes to some effort to prevent that access, including issuing patches when problems are found.

tlakeelmo wrote:

Is there a way to remove the popup? I am seeing this on my IPad and it just started on my phone.

If the pop-up is the spam-advertising pop-up that started off this fifty-three page thread, then disable pop-ups in Settings > Safari, and dismiss the pop-up. If the pop-up won't dismiss, then force-exit the Safari app (click or tap on the following blue-text link Close an app on your iPhone or iPod touch - Apple Support), and then use Settings > Safari > Advanced > Website Data to clear the saved website data, and re-launch Safari.

If you are getting calendar alerts on an iPhone as I might guess, remove the subscribed calendar. Somewhere along the way, you were offered and accepted notifications from some website, and that subscribed you to a spammer's calendar. Click or tap on the following blue-text for info on how to unsubscribe to a calendar on an iPhone: Delete spam calendars and events on iPhone - Apple Support

If you're not on an iPhone or are getting some other message, you'll want to include a few more details.

JoanaCacao wrote:

I’m with the virus in my phone

Well, no. You either saw a pop-up advertisement that lied and can be ignored, or you were offered and subscribed to a spammer’s spam-filled advertising calendar.

In either case, you were served advertising, and particularly advertising which used words that trigger strong fears in you as many do; advertising which lied to you.

Here? You need do nothing for a pop-up. or if this was a subscribed calendar that you no longer wish to subscribe to, click or tap > Delete spam calendars and events on iPhone - Apple Support

Lots of these scams around, too. Click or tap > Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

Should you want to learn more, see the previous fifty-some pages of replies here.

navdip80 wrote:

Hello, I am trying to get rid of my virus on my phone can, so I opened safari and ads pop on and I accidentally clicked on and after they said you got viruses on your phone

I’m sorry to inform you that there are no viruses here, though there are advertisers with advertisements (pop-ups) containing falsehoods.

You need do nothing. Your iPhone is fine.

Falsehoods? Falsehoods such as advertisers claiming to have “scanned” your computer. That’d be a security catastrophe, if a website could perform an anti-malware scan. A sketchy website would just upload everything, passwords and contacts and all. So all web browsers work to prevent that access. iPhone and iPad further block even local apps from scanning your files and stored data.

(This is why the sketchy apps on the app store are VPNs or contain VPNs, as those can scan some of your network activity.)

(Security is also why you always want to apply the most current updates!)

Rule of thumb: web pop-up advertisements far too often involve falsehoods (lies), or scams, or sketchy products, or the advertisers wouldn’t be using pop-ups.

Click or tap on the following blue-text link, and learn how to > Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

hsiahsgsbshd wrote:

How did i get this virus

As has been mentioned before, your iPhone or iPad is fine. There’s no hack. No virus.

These websites and these advertisements —these are advertisements, not diagnostic tools—cannot scan your iPhone or iPad.

These websites and these advertisement cannot do what they claim.

If websites could do that—scanning is very intrusive and requires more access than even local iPhone or iPad apps can have—then they’d would just upload your passwords and your data. But they can’t. Browsers fundamentally block the access these advertisers claim. So the advertisers try to fool you into doing something against your own best interests. They lie. As sketchy advertisers do.

Here is a blue-text link to some tips for avoiding the most common of these scams, and for recognizing some of the most common of these sketchy advertisements:

…Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

Again, your iPhone or iPad is fine.

taylun112 wrote:

I am scared that I have a viruses and I want you to wipe them if you can

These are advertisements.

The whole point of these advertising messages is to panic you. These advertisements try cloud your thinking. These advertisements try to make you act against your own interests. This advertising technique works, too.

These advertisements lied, too. Your iPhone is fine. No “virus”. No “hack”.

Here’s a rule of thumb for you: any use or “hacker” or “virus” you encounter is rubbish, until proven otherwise. If you see either of those words, think “the advertiser is lying to me” or “what is this advertiser trying to sell me?”

Now for yourself and your iPhone and your security, how are your backups? Got current ones? If not, get backups going. Backups are an important part of your data security.

Been through and checked your password security recommendations (Settings > Passwords > Security Recommendations)? Good passwords are a key part of your security, and where too many of us can get in trouble,

Got two-factor authentication enabled? If not, enable it. That’s one more chance to maintain control of your Apple ID.

Is your iPhone running running the most current iOS? If not, update it.

But these “you have 36 or 61 or 5,120 viruses” advertisement rubbish? The internet and all other media is replete with rubbish. And more than a few advertisers will lie to you. As the advertisers have done, here. They lied. Your iPhone is fine. No “hackers” and no “viruses”.

lol_ranbaby wrote:

How do I fix this problem

There’s nothing to fix.

These are advertisements.

The whole point of these advertising messages is to panic you. These advertisements try cloud your thinking. These advertisements try to make you act against your own interests. These advertising techniques work, too.

These advertisements lied, too. Your iPhone is fine. No “virus”. No “hack”.

Any use or “hacker” or “virus” you encounter in advertising is rubbish, until proven otherwise. If you see either of those two words, assume the advertiser is lying, and ask yourself what this advertiser is trying to sell.

Now for yourself and for your iPhone and your security, how are your backups? Got current ones? If not, get backups going. Backups are an important part of your data security.

Been through and checked your password security recommendations (Settings > Passwords > Security Recommendations)? Good passwords are a key part of your security, and where too many of us can get in trouble,

Got two-factor authentication enabled? If not, enable it. That’s one more chance to maintain control of your Apple ID.

Is your iPhone running running the most current iOS? If not, update it.

But these “you have 36 or 61 or 5,120 viruses” advertisement rubbish? The internet and all other media is replete with rubbish. And more than a few advertisers will lie to you. As the advertisers have done, here. They lied. Your iPhone is fine. No “hackers” and no “viruses”.

aliana256 wrote:

My phone have a virus

No, it doesn’t. These are advertisements, either as pop-ups claiming “viruses” or “hackers” or other words chosen to scare, or this is a subscribed calendar you were offered and accepted and that’s filled with advertising spam.

In either of the cases discussed throughout this thread, there’s no hack, no hacker, no virus, only advertising.

Sorry, but this is all far more mundane.

Did you see a website advertising pop-up in Safari that ”scanned” your iPhone (and lied;, or did you subscribe to a calendar that’s now posting many advertising-filled scheduled alerts?

If the former, ignore the pop-up advertisement. If the latter, remove the advertising-filled subscribed calendar, tap or click for more info ➡️ Delete spam calendars and events on iPhone - Apple Support

Tap or click on the following blue-text link for some info on common scams ➡️ Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support