Security Update Scam and how to beat it
Encountered odd scam attempt from a through site trying to pose as a tech security for iOS or Firefox while browsing on the Firefox app for IOS. It locks you out of being able to click anything on the app. So how do I defeat it and get use of the app back? Well first since Firefox remembers the last page you visited you can’t just close the app and open it again as you’ll see the scam again. So here are the steps I used:
1. DON’T PANIC. Calm down and take a couple breaths. 2. Now that you are calm place you phone in airplane mode. This will disconnect you from any networks. No data in =No data out. 3 Now open the Firefox app. The scam pop up that locked you out will appear. 4 Click the acknowledgement Okay. This is fine as it will immediately attempt to go to next page but since step 2 was done it can’t. 5 Now select the Tabs button at the bottom of the app and close that scam page. 6 Clear your cookies and site data for extra measure. 7 Take your phone out of airplane mode 8 Enjoy the fact that you have just outsmarted those fake tech support scammers
All Replies (4)
Thank you! This is good advice when trapped on a scam malware page!
Never click on any links or popups on these scam pages & do the above as told by cptjlawrence. I'm surprised that it was able to lock up the UI on a iOS app.
Do you happen to remember what kind of scam page it was or what site you were surfing before it appeared? Usually I get these kind of scam site popups when visiting news sites that have ads. One of the ads is unfortunately infected & then takes over your browser. I've seen them block you from closing them on Windows. But only had that problem maybe one or twice on Mac. I thought it was impossible to lock up the UI on an iOS app tho due to its security. Thanks for warning us!
It was part of one of those chain links that’s used for ads where you get passed through a number of internet links before arriving where you wanted to be. Unfortunately I don’t remember where I was trying to go. I too thought it was strange that it was able to lock up the app like it did. Hopefully this can be useful in some way should someone else encounter this. I know scammers have recently been increasing their efforts to scam English speakers out of money but never figured there’d be that sophisticated of an attack. Always figured iOS was nearly immune to hacking, but apparently this was a rare specialized attack.
There needs to be a mobile FAQ page added that includes at least some of the steps as https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1319670 doesn’t cover mobile devices.
Modified by cptjlawrence
cptjlawrence said
...Always figured iOS was nearly immune to hacking, but apparently this was a rare specialized attack. There needs to be a mobile FAQ page added that includes at least some of the steps as https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1319670 doesn’t cover mobile devices.
Same here! I really thought iOS had better protection against their app's UI being taken over & frozen. I'll be on the lookout for more reports of this. I'd like to see about improving the article you mentioned that you found that was missing mobile advice. Could you post the link to that article again? It got replaced with a link to this thread instead.
Was it one of these articles? https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-caused-malware https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/i-found-fake-firefox-update https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/avoid-and-report-mozilla-tech-support-scams
Thanks again for all your advice here! I'm really all about security & preventing people from getting stuck in these horrible "browser lockdown/extortion" situations. Hoping we see less of these attacks in the future or at least better protection. Take care & have a happy new year!
Modified by NoahSUMO