July 27, 2015

The Phoney Phone Virus

Filed under: Main — Tags: — admin @ 12:01 am

It freaked me out. I checked my phone, viewing the same web page I just looked at moments before. What I saw on the screen wasn’t what I expected.

Figure 1 illustrates the image I saw. It kinda freaked me out.

Figure 1. Oh noes!

Figure 1. Oh noes!

Without hesitation, I pressed the Home button on my Samsung phone and escaped from whatever the hell was taking over the screen. (The red bar you see in Figure 1 animates.)

I pressed the Recent icon and swiped away all my web browser app pages from the Overview. Then I went in and looked at the phone, checking the data connection and reviewing all my apps to ensure that nothing went awry.

Phone viruses are very, very rare. Even more rare is the warning you’d see if your phone was infected. What’s shown in Figure 1 isn’t a virus or an app; it’s a web page — a very clever web page that fools people into giving away their hard-earned money.

Officially, this type of thing is known as a phishing scam. Right now, iOS users are being duped by such a scheme. The web page takes over the screen and looks like an app. It requests that you click a button or dial a number to immediately (and often at “no charge”) remove the virus. Innocent dupes phone the number and gladly offer their credit card, which is charged for services not necessary.

The advice being given to iOS users is to place their phones into Airplane Mode, which immediately terminates all the device’s wireless radios. That’s a safe move, but honestly if your phone is infected with something, it’s already in there and switching off the Wi-Fi won’t get rid of it.

Further, it’s nearly impossible for a web page to load anything nasty into your phone. The web browser’s security settings prevent such a thing from happening.

For your Android, setting Airplane Mode isn’t necessary. If you see a screen such as the one shown above, press the Home navigation icon, then the Recent icon. Swipe away the web page and you’re done.

Later, on my desktop computer, I reviewed Chrome’s web page history from my phone. I was able to bring up the website that claimed my phone was infected. In fact, the screenshot you see in Figure 1 is from my computer, not the phone. So the web page is a scam from the get-go, but still it may frighten you into doing something stupid. Don’t.

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