How do I handle "Police popup"/browser hijack in Safari?

[iMore Question]

I have an iPhone 6 with the latest version of iOS installed. Earlier tonight I was browsing and ended up on a site with celebrity nudes. Almost immediately after, a popup appears claiming I have violated child pornography and copyright laws. It said that I must pay $500 within 24 hours or all my apps, games, etc would be deleted. I tried exiting safari and even turning the phone off, but every time I went back onto safari, that message popped back up. I don't think it locked my phone up because I was able to go under the settings and clear my data and site history. Once I did that, the popup no longer appeared and I have been able to use safari normally. My question is this: Is my phone okay, or are there more steps I need to take? Have I been hit with a virus or was this nothing more than a malicious popup?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Honey Beagle]

re: How do I handle "Police popup" in Safari?

I have head that this is a malware type pop up. Attached to this pop up is the scare tactic of requesting monies from you. You did the right thing. You should be fine now. If you have Windows 8 0r 10. Windows Defender will fix this. If you have any other version use a malware tighter to scan and fix this.
But, again you and your computer will be fine.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Ledsteplin]

re: How do I handle "Police popup" in Safari?

Your phone is fine. It's not malware as such. It's more like phishing spam. Clearing history does the trick.

 

[Tartarus]

re: How do I handle "Police popup" in Safari?

It's a bogus warning. If there was really child porn involved and the police or any other authority for that matter noticed, you would have been arrested in no time.
You don't have to worry and like others before me already assured you, deleting history and cookies does the trick.

To be safe in the future block pop-ups in settings in Safari.

 

[Jaguarr40]

re: How do I handle "Police popup" in Safari?

I would do what Ledsteplin suggested and that should eliminate your problem and if you wanted to go further... Turn off Pop Ups if you already haven't.

 

[pablo_2015]

re: How do I handle "Police popup" in Safari?

Is this still occurring? I've received a similar pop while searching a Instagram model on safari.

 

[Ledsteplin]

re: How do I handle "Police popup" in Safari?

Is this still occurring? I've received a similar pop while searching a Instagram model on safari.

This sort of thing can happen at any time. Just be careful what sites you visit. If you get anything suspicious, just go to Settings >Safari > clear history and cache.

 

[pablo_2015]

re: How do I handle "Police popup" in Safari?

Cheers, she's not a pormstar or anything she might do the odd shoot for playboy. The link I clicked was a website I've not heard of but don't dare search it again. But when I exited it came up with the pop up saying police at the top. Just worried me I suppose shes a adult model in her late 20's not a child. It just s***s you up.

 

[pablo_2015]

re: How do I handle "Police popup" in Safari?

Also I keep getting pop ups asking me to install apps and do surveys for iPhone?! Should I reset my phone do you know?

 

[Ledsteplin]

re: How do I handle "Police popup" in Safari?

Also I keep getting pop ups asking me to install apps and do surveys for iPhone?! Should I reset my phone do you know?

Just Don't follow those links.

 

[robertk328]

re: How do I handle "Police popup" in Safari?

Just Don't follow those links.

This. And be aware of the links you click/sites you visit.... lots of phishing scams out there! Clear your history/cache and you should be good to go.

 

[anon(9733642)]

re: How do I handle "Police popup" in Safari?

Also, open safari and turn on Private Browsing. This will clear your history every time you close your browser. If this ever happens on your Mac versus your iPhone, just hold down the control key when opening Safari and then you can clear your history.

 

[Kiakaii]

re: How do I handle "Police popup" in Safari?

I had this happened to me , i was re-directed from a picture on Tumblr on to safari , then the popup came on and i was panicking since it looked like something real. And i wasn't looking at anything illegal that I'm aware of. I came off of Tumblr and safari and nothing has happened since.

 

[pkcable]

I'm glad this got bumped! This is a semi common browser hijack. It happens in computers AND phones. It's nothing to worry about, you did nothing wrong, it's just a lame attempt to extort money from you. Think about those hoodlum types who used to get protection money from businesses back in the day, to "protect" them from criminals in the neighborhood, but really it was to protect them from THEM! All you need do is clear your browser history and in some cases reset your homepage.


PS I turned this in to a Q&A for the benefit of the community.