Watch Out for This iOS Scam (+ How to Fix It)
Technology can be really great given everything it helps you do in life, like take groundbreaking photos of Pluto, help donate to charities that need your help, and even improve your posture. But we can never forget that there are always some who choose to use it in not-so-nice ways. Some of these are just pranks, like the text that would crash your phone. But others are much, much worse, like the con artists behind the latest iOS scam. The New York Daily News is reporting that several iPhone owners in the US and across the pond in the UK have been receiving a pop-up that then freezes your phone.
The pop up reads: “Warning IOS – Crash report. Due to a third party application in yourphone [sic]. iOS crashed. Contact Support for an immediate fix +1-800-556-2901 (Toll Free) immediately!” In the meantime, you can’t click out of the notification, which leaves you unable to use your phone. Apparently, calling the hotline then leads to someone asking for $80 and your credit card info to fix the freeze (no doubt, lining the pockets of the scammers too).
So, how do you remedy this problem? Well, definitely don’t call that number. This is what some users have found works: Put your phone on airplane mode (pull up the menu from the bottom and click the airplane mode symbol), close the window and reopen Safari. Another suggestion was to disable popup ads, which you can do by going into Settings > Safari and turning on “Block Pop-ups.”
Good luck and be careful out there.
Have you experienced this scam, and did the remedy work? Tell us in the comments below!
(h/t New York Daily News; photos via Chris Jackson/Getty)