The Student Room Group

iPhone pop up hack alert?

Hi

I gave my sister an iPhone 11 for Christmas today and I've helped her set up and she loves it much more than her android as camera is way better which she uses a lot.

However around 10 mins ago she was Listening to Christmas music on YouTube when a message pop up says her phone has been hacked and if she doesn't act in 2 minutes hackers will be able to access her personal info and camera she clicked ok and it redirected her to some space app thing so she clicked off and closed all apps.

I'm thinking this is a scam but wanted to check here as she's now really worried especially since she's not even had it for 24hrs yet.

Was it a scam message and since she didn't download anything will she her phone be ok?
Original post by LifeisGolden
Hi

I gave my sister an iPhone 11 for Christmas today and I've helped her set up and she loves it much more than her android as camera is way better which she uses a lot.

However around 10 mins ago she was Listening to Christmas music on YouTube when a message pop up says her phone has been hacked and if she doesn't act in 2 minutes hackers will be able to access her personal info and camera she clicked ok and it redirected her to some space app thing so she clicked off and closed all apps.

I'm thinking this is a scam but wanted to check here as she's now really worried especially since she's not even had it for 24hrs yet.

Was it a scam message and since she didn't download anything will she her phone be ok?

Yes, it was a scam. The dead giveaway is the claim that "if she doesn't act in 2 minutes hackers will be able to access her personal info and camera". That's an attempt by hackers into scaring her into doing something stupid, which she'd never do if she thought about for a moment.

It's impossible to know what happened when she "clicked ok and it redirected her to some space app thing". (You should never click anything - even OK - in response.) However, it's difficult to hack iPhone's, so she's likely OK. The "space app thing" was likely going to be where any damage was done, and she didn't download it.
Original post by DataVenia
Yes, it was a scam. The dead giveaway is the claim that "if she doesn't act in 2 minutes hackers will be able to access her personal info and camera". That's an attempt by hackers into scaring her into doing something stupid, which she'd never do if she thought about for a moment.
It's impossible to know what happened when she "clicked ok and it redirected her to some space app thing". (You should never click anything - even OK - in response.) However, it's difficult to hack iPhone's, so she's likely OK. The "space app thing" was likely going to be where any damage was done, and she didn't download it.

Thank yep it took her to a page that looked like the app store wanting her to download and as soon as it redirected her she immediately closed the tab and deleted all her website data and YouTube history ect.

Everything in her settings looks normal and she can't see anything unusual

I am curious though how she's had 1 pop up scam message with her iPhone but never had anything like this with her redmi note 9? Are iPhones just targeted more?
(edited 1 month ago)

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