iphone virus or malware claims control of video camera

HI,

It's a scam ...

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

If you received or acted on a likely phishing message:

If you received a suspicious email, please forward it to reportphishing@apple.com. If you're on a Mac, select the email and choose Forward As Attachment from the Message menu.

If you think you might have entered personal information like a password or credit card info on a scam website, immediately change your Apple ID password.

FilesFound wrote:

Thanks very much for your response. Given that the vast majority are scams, that implies that a minority of them are legitimate. So is it safe to say that an iPhone that has not been "jailbroken" can still be infected with malware that could cause someone to gain that level of control (turn on the video camera, take the video, upload it to a site, etc.)?

if the phone is not jailbroken then the only place you can obtain programs is the App Store. Since Apple does not provide the tools for developers to write malicious code and every security is controlled by iOS the only way to share anything else (camera, mic, location) with an 3rd party app is to manually allow it through iOS.

Short answer: don't jailbreak your iOS device if you want to keep it secure.

FilesFound wrote:

First, I truly appreciate the responses in this community. First time I've used it and very thankful to have access to this community. A further piece of information. Apparently, the email stated that the malware was in the video. Is this even technically possible, to infect an iPhone with software that controls a camera and steals contact information just by watching a video or visiting a website? Thanks again.

All app runs in a sandbox, meaning no app can do any thing to another app without your permission.

Check Settings > Privacy > Camera > any app granted permission by you to use the camera is listed here.

FilesFound wrote:

First, I truly appreciate the responses in this community. First time I've used it and very thankful to have access to this community. A further piece of information. Apparently, the email stated that the malware was in the video. Is this even technically possible, to infect an iPhone with software that controls a camera and steals contact information just by watching a video or visiting a website? Thanks again.

No, it's not technically possible. These people (or "slime" as I like to refer to them) send these emails by the millions in the hope that some people will get scared enough that they stop thinking rationally and pay up. It doesn't take very many people falling for it for them to make money.

You, however, took the time to consult people you thought might know more about this sort of thing. Good work!

The vast majority of any such emails are scams. The

No