Virus on an iPhone?

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Bobby Dazzler

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Today I received an email from someone I know and all that was included was a link, including leighannswords.com in the string. Although I was suspicious I clicked on the link and it redirected me to a website selling Viagra.

A quick Google doesn't show anything linked to that URL.

I'm concerned it may have infected my iPhone in some way as the next time I used the phone it prompted me to set Yahoo as my home page - when I cancelled it there was a webpage which looked like a Yahoo page (although it couuld have been a hoax I guess) in the browser which I did not go to - presumably triggered by the link.

What's the verdict - a likely infection?

What's the best course of action - wipe the OS and restore from last backup?
 
Well - botnets very easily hack email accounts and send emails out from there. The person whose email account was used may have a keylogger on her computer, that's not uncommon. No idea about the Yahoo thing. What it sounds like is someone or something got Yahoo loaded on your phone and you may have accidentally tapped a "set as homepage" link.

I may well be wrong, though
 
I think you will be ok on your iPhone perhaps not so if you clicked the same link on your PC.

You may wish to consider gettng an antivirus product for your IOS device for future occurances though as their popularity means that its only a matter of time before they are actively targetted by unscrupulous script kiddies.
 
These viagra sites are technically harmless if you don't order anything. Those sites aren't up to infect computers - they are up to steal bank details and to sell counterfeit goods. They have been known to ship tablets made from flour even.
 
Well - botnets very easily hack email accounts and send emails out from there. The person whose email account was used may have a keylogger on her computer, that's not uncommon. No idea about the Yahoo thing. What it sounds like is someone or something got Yahoo loaded on your phone and you may have accidentally tapped a "set as homepage" link.

I may well be wrong, though

I suspect the re-direct triggered both the Viagra site and the page which appeared to be Yahoo, and that page had a script which tried to set as home page when viewed. I didn't accept it.

I think you will be ok on your iPhone perhaps not so if you clicked the same link on your PC.

You may wish to consider gettng an antivirus product for your IOS device for future occurances though as their popularity means that its only a matter of time before they are actively targetted by unscrupulous script kiddies.

That's reassuring. As I was suspicious I thought it would be better to open on the iPhone than when I got back to the computer. You're right about being a matter of time...

Any recommendations for IOS AV?

These viagra sites are technically harmless if you don't order anything. Those sites aren't up to infect computers - they are up to steal bank details and to sell counterfeit goods. They have been known to ship tablets made from flour even.

Well I only ordered a few bits and pieces :D
 
Today I received an email from someone I know and all that was included was a link, including leighannswords.com in the string. Although I was suspicious I clicked on the link and it redirected me to a website selling Viagra.

A quick Google doesn't show anything linked to that URL.

I'm concerned it may have infected my iPhone in some way as the next time I used the phone it prompted me to set Yahoo as my home page - when I cancelled it there was a webpage which looked like a Yahoo page (although it couuld have been a hoax I guess) in the browser which I did not go to - presumably triggered by the link.

What's the verdict - a likely infection?

What's the best course of action - wipe the OS and restore from last backup?
Can you send some to me as well. Might as well try them too.
 
So how many you ordered? :D

Oh I'm sure he never ordered even one ;)

cleopatras_needle_in_place.jpg
 
Albeit a low risk, I wasn't comfortable that it was clean, so I wiped the iPhone from the device itself, and not through iTunes - I didn't want to risk backing up an infected file.

Once it had wiped, I then connected to iTunes, updated the OS from 5 to 5.01 (or is it5.1?), and restored from a back up from a couple of days before I clicked on the iffy link.

The iffy links keep on coming with masked innocent looking link text, changing each time.
 
It sounds like the senders email accouint is compromised. Not your problem.
 
It sounds like the senders email accouint is compromised. Not your problem.

I agree. I suspect it's been hacked to rather than just spoofing as he's not responding to emails - most unusual.
 
Pick up the phone and call him.
 
Pick up the phone and call him.

I don't know his number. He's on a distribution list only. I'm trying to get a message to him by other means though.
 

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