Is it me or are you much more likely to run into malicious websites on iPhones (or smartphones in general) than on PC?

[NylaTheWolf]

I feel like I run into fake scam websites (that are also probably malicious) much more often when I'm browsing the internet on my iPhone than I ever did on Mac. Not too long ago I was looking up something and I clicked on a website with the Mac Rumors favicon, and I realized a second too late that it wasn't Mac Rumors. It took me to one of those "YOU'RE OUR 100TH VISITOR, OPEN THE GIFT BOX!" websites, and then I got an iOS-like pop up asking me to turn on a VPN. I literally had to close out of Safari, reopen it, and quickly hit the tab overview button so I could close it out.

Now this is the most recent example but I've run into these several times over the past few years. I did clear website data for that webpage and deleted it from my history, but I'm still concerned that I got a virus by some sort of drive-by download or something. People say that iPhones are pretty secure but I'm still worried since there's a lot of advanced malware out there.

So I guess this is two questions in one: Is it possible that I got a virus somehow? I mean I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary lately.

And does anyone else find that you run into those scammy or malicious websites much more often on iPhone than on a computer? I did bring it up in a Discord server I'm in and someone said that they've gotten a lot of those on Android, so it seems this isn't an Apple thing. Still, it makes me wish that uBlock Origin could be on my iPhone.

Edit: I want to clear out website data but I'm worried about losing history or my tabs. There's not a way to do this without clearing out the history and tabs, is there?

 

[MacManiac76]

Are you using an Ad blocking Extension on Safari for iPhone? If you're not, you should be. I use both AdBlock Pro and AdGuard extensions together and I never receive these types of popups or other scam/malware.

 

[Slartibart]

additionally: after closing Safari you can use Delete Safari History in the Safari preferences to get rid of the open page it’s cookies and other website data it might have copied.

Be aware that this will close all other open tabs and delete their related data too - any bookmarked page can of course reopened via its bookmark.

 

[now i see it]

You’ve GOTTA delete all Safari history and cookies and cache data OFTEN. I wipe it clean at the end of every day.

Malware does exist on iOS and the stuff that does exist, you wouldn’t know you had it.
You could get it just by visiting a website and not clicking on anything.
While those compromises definitely do exist in the wild, they are rare and the general public almost never comes in contact with them - but they do exist.

My opinion on the matter is: if a person is going to start digging deep into the bowels of the internet- going to back alleys & such, don’t do it on a computer that has any valuable data or info associated with it.

 

[NylaTheWolf]

Are you using an Ad blocking Extension on Safari for iPhone? If you're not, you should be. I use both AdBlock Pro and AdGuard extensions together and I never receive these types of popups or other scam/malware.

Actually after the aforementioned experience I finally decided to download an ad blocker for Safari! I'm using AdGuard right now. Come to think of it, I was looking up Safari extensions when I ran into that site and I was looking for an adblocker as well.

Isn't having both AdBlock Pro and AdGuard redundant though?

additionally: after closing Safari you can use Delete Safari History in the Safari preferences to get rid of the open page it’s cookies and other website data it might have copied.

Be aware that this will close all other open tabs and delete their related data too - any bookmarked page can of course reopened via its bookmark.

Thank you for the information! I'm definitely going to.

Just a quick question: Does it do the same to other browsers on my iPhone? And does it wipe out the Safari reading list or any other browser's reading list?

 

[Slartibart]

Just a quick question: Does it do the same to other browsers on my iPhone? And does it wipe out the Safari reading list or any other browser's reading list?

It doesn’t.

 

[Tsepz]

I feel like I run into fake scam websites (that are also probably malicious) much more often when I'm browsing the internet on my iPhone than I ever did on Mac. Not too long ago I was looking up something and I clicked on a website with the Mac Rumors favicon, and I realized a second too late that it wasn't Mac Rumors. It took me to one of those "YOU'RE OUR 100TH VISITOR, OPEN THE GIFT BOX!" websites, and then I got an iOS-like pop up asking me to turn on a VPN. I literally had to close out of Safari, reopen it, and quickly hit the tab overview button so I could close it out.

Now this is the most recent example but I've run into these several times over the past few years. I did clear website data for that webpage and deleted it from my history, but I'm still concerned that I got a virus by some sort of drive-by download or something. People say that iPhones are pretty secure but I'm still worried since there's a lot of advanced malware out there.

So I guess this is two questions in one: Is it possible that I got a virus somehow? I mean I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary lately.

And does anyone else find that you run into those scammy or malicious websites much more often on iPhone than on a computer? I did bring it up in a Discord server I'm in and someone said that they've gotten a lot of those on Android, so it seems this isn't an Apple thing. Still, it makes me wish that uBlock Origin could be on my iPhone.

Edit: I want to clear out website data but I'm worried about losing history or my tabs. There's not a way to do this without clearing out the history and tabs, is there?

I currently use Wipr to ensure I don’t run into these issues. Haven’t found myself in a malicious website in years TBH.

I will say that you probably get links etc… to such websites more and more on social media and on SMS sometimes, there is a point where we as users also need to take accountability and ensure we are careful, unfortunately the scammers and hackers are targeting mobile users more these days as more people are using their mobile devices to access the internet more than their desktop PC and/or laptop.

 

[Samdh90]

When it comes to malware, and bad actors in general, they usually target the largest audience. It used to be Windows as M$ had a large control of the market for years. That has started to change within the last 10 years or so, we started seeing more viruses on MacOS. As the audience shifts more, we started to see more potential issues on the mobile platform for the same reason.

Safe-internet practice is always a good idea, don't click links you don't know about, especially from email and SMS. There are some websites out there that make you think your device is infected when the device is not, those are annoyances but not typically something to take seriously. These things are often times a scam to scare a user into calling a number for a paid service that makes things worse. Any decent adblocker app should filter most, if not all of these out.

 

[NylaTheWolf]

I will say that you probably get links etc… to such websites more and more on social media and on SMS sometimes, there is a point where we as users also need to take accountability and ensure we are careful, unfortunately the scammers and hackers are targeting mobile users more these days as more people are using their mobile devices to access the internet more than their desktop PC and/or laptop.

Usually I find these sites through search engines, actually. I don't click on random links from email or SMS or DMs from a stranger. Though you make a really good point about how more people are using mobile devices and thus more hackers and scammers are targeting those users.

Hopefully this AdGuard/some other blocker experiment goes well!

 

[MacManiac76]

Using AdBlock Pro and AdGuard is probably mostly redundant, but I found some sites were still showing empty white space areas where blocked ads would have been on the page so I just leave both on. I haven’t had any conflicting issues using both so I just leave it that way.

 

[Slartibart]

besides the already mentioned blockers I like to recommendto run additionally Hush.

 

[Paddle1]

besides the already mentioned blockers I like to recommendto run additionally Hush.

I had no idea something like this existed. Sounds really useful.

 

[ian87w]

I feel like I run into fake scam websites (that are also probably malicious) much more often when I'm browsing the internet on my iPhone than I ever did on Mac. Not too long ago I was looking up something and I clicked on a website with the Mac Rumors favicon, and I realized a second too late that it wasn't Mac Rumors. It took me to one of those "YOU'RE OUR 100TH VISITOR, OPEN THE GIFT BOX!" websites, and then I got an iOS-like pop up asking me to turn on a VPN. I literally had to close out of Safari, reopen it, and quickly hit the tab overview button so I could close it out.

Now this is the most recent example but I've run into these several times over the past few years. I did clear website data for that webpage and deleted it from my history, but I'm still concerned that I got a virus by some sort of drive-by download or something. People say that iPhones are pretty secure but I'm still worried since there's a lot of advanced malware out there.

So I guess this is two questions in one: Is it possible that I got a virus somehow? I mean I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary lately.

And does anyone else find that you run into those scammy or malicious websites much more often on iPhone than on a computer? I did bring it up in a Discord server I'm in and someone said that they've gotten a lot of those on Android, so it seems this isn't an Apple thing. Still, it makes me wish that uBlock Origin could be on my iPhone.

Edit: I want to clear out website data but I'm worried about losing history or my tabs. There's not a way to do this without clearing out the history and tabs, is there?

Yes, it's far easier for me as well on my phone, simply because sometimes my thumb rests on some random link by accident. The smaller screen and crude touch point (our fingers) sometimes made accidental clicks far more easier than a desktop OS with pinpoint accuracy of a mouse pointer.

As far as getting a virus, a phone is inherently safer. So most of those websites are just FUD. Close the tab out, clear your history/cache if you want to, and you are fine. Installing ad-blocker will help reduce some of these annoyances.