With all the scams these days is important to know how to spot fake phone virus scans.
These pop-ups are unfortunately very common, and can even show up on very reputable websites.
In this post we will talk about what they are, how to tell they are scams, what to do and how to get rid of them.
What are they?
These types of pop-ups are malicious advertisements that, one way or another, found their way onto whatever website they pop up on.
They are phishing attempts that will attempt to get you to contact a scam caller to remedy the “viruses” they have found on your device.
They may show a logo of a real anti-virus such as Norton or MacAfee. Sometimes they may just use few generic words about security.
Once it pops up, it will then play an animation that looks like it is running a scan on your phone, followed by a warning and some contact information when finished.
Below are two examples:
How to Tell They are Scams
Using the images above, as well as logic, here are a few reasons that you can tell these are scams.
First off, we can see they are websites. We can tell that by looking at the address bar on the left image in Chrome. We see the website is called Cleanbyte, which clearly isn’t Norton.
The same can be said for the right image, which is in Facebook’s browser. There is no website that is going to scan your files, let alone automatically begin to do so. This also applies to computers.
Next we want to consider the kind of phone we are using. It’s very rare for an iPhone to get a virus or malware on it. Almost all pop-ups like this are just here to scare users into falling for phishing scams, and have no capability to infect your phone.
Even on Androids, which are more susceptible to viruses and malware, these pop-ups are mostly just a scare tactic.
Most Viruses and Malware would not announce themselves to you, They are designed to hide and operate in the shadows. The more glaringly obvious it is the less likely it is to be an actual virus.
Cell Phone Security
iPhone security apps don’t scan anything, because there is nothing for them to scan. They simply cover areas like web guarding, dark web monitoring, identity security, and other things. There is never an option to scan anything, and if there was it would just check your apps to make sure there isn’t one that is notoriously malicious.
The only way to really make an iPhone unsafe is to jailbreak it. This removes a lot of software restrictions and gives the user root access to the device. This process is against Apples terms and conditions and opens the phone up to a lot of vulnerability.
Most apps for iPhones in the Apple App Store are considered safe when it comes to the phones system. Apple creates their apps with a term known as “sandboxing.” This is a security mechanism that isolates apps on iOS. This means their access to system, and other functionalities, are very strictly defined.
Androids on the other hand can be a bit rougher in this regard. There is a lot more freedom with what can be downloaded and installed on them. They allow users to install things from external app stores and not just the Google Play Store.
What to Do and How to Get Rid of Them
It is very important NOT to interact with them. Do not click on anything within the web page, and never type any personal information in. If a phone number is given to you DO NOT call it.
All that needs to be done when these pop up is to close the webpage. To do this, press the tabs button and hit the x at the top right of the tab.
You will need to close the tab entirely, or just use the close all tabs function if that is easier for you. This can be done by finding the option on your browser. In Chrome it is done by pressing the edit option on the left in the tabs menu.
If unsure you can call us and we can walk you through it or make an appointment to show you how to handle this situation.
Keep an eye out for our upcoming blog post on similar pop-ups on Laptops and Desktop computers.
If you have questions about how to use spot a fake phone virus scan, or our other services, please call or email. We’re happy to assist you! Feel free to use our contact form to send us a message. Thank you!