Earlier today I was surfing the web on my iPhone and it suddenly led me to a college porn video. After that I got the U.S. Marshals warning saying that I was accused of watching child pornography and it said it could lead to 5-8 years and also a 500$ fine. It crashed my safari app. On the pop up message, it had my ip address, location, and everything. It said it would lock up my phone if the fine is not paid within 48 hours. It scared the heck out of me and now i don t know if i’m actually being charged or it is a scam. Is this pop up real? How do I unlock it?
Today more and more Apple users are scammed with a fake U.S. Marshals warning and asked to pay ‘fines’ for viewing porn. If you got a pop-up message supposedly from U.S. Marshals saying that “You are accused of viewing/storage and/or dissemination of banned pornography (child pornography/zoophilia/rape etc.)” and you are asked to pay $500 fine within 24/48/72 hours to unlock the device, please ignore the message immediately and do not fall into this scam. The convincing message is actually designed by cyber criminals in order to scare inexperienced users into thinking they had done something wrong, and then extort their money. This fake notification is nothing more than a malicious javascript page, and it can be shown up on iPhone or iPad without any permission. As long as the warning is showing up, users can not use Safari and browse the web. It also has the ability to crash Chrome browser. A lot of people get freaked out that this fake warning message might actually be real since they can not seem to get rid of them. Or they believe that their iPhone or iPad is infected with some sort of virus or malware that can access to their private photos and videos etc so they start to panic. Restarting the device is not helpful at all to get out of this virus warning as it pops up right away as soon as the device starts up. So the only way to gain Internet access back and stay away from this hoax is to remove U.S. Marshals warning manually.
The malware is known to affect all apple device like iphone 5, iphone 5s, iphone 6, iphone 6 plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s, iPhone SE and even iPad mini/ipad/ipad air. When it hacks the target device, it pops up a fake warning claiming from a law enforcement agency to freeze user’s Internet and shows an interesting URL on the address bar starting with fbi.gov or something like that. It convinces users this is a real message from U.S. Marshals and then falsely alleges that their iphone or ipad has been detected to use for viewing or distributing prohibited pornography and they will be involved in others similar crimes. And then infected users will be asked to pay a fine of $500 via Paypal My Cash Card, Moneypak, Ukash or Paysafecard etc. in 72 hours, otherwise all data including photos and contacts will be deleted and the device will be locked forever. The malware’s authors prefer victim use the prepaid card to complete money transfer because transactions made through them cannot be reversed and are hard to trace. But paying the ransom does not guarantee to exit out this fake warning and gain Internet access again; it only guarantees that the malicious actors receive the victim’s money, and in some cases, their banking information.
“I had the U.S. Marshals message on my iPad and it locked my Chrome browser. I was told to give 500$ if I don’t they are going to contact my phone contacts. They had my user name, location, ip address and even sent me a screenshot. I just wanted to know if anyone had heard of this and if they have the ability to actually contact my friends? If i don’t pay $500, will i be taken to the jail? I hope this is not true because i don’t go to jail. I’m 17 and I don’t want to disappoint my parents. I’m scared and my heart is racing. I shut down my ipad and I am scared to turn it back on so what is it? Please tell me if it is safe to turn back on my ipad and how do I get rid of this message? Thank you!”
Please keep in mind that U.S. Marshals warning is far from real. The U.S. Marshals (or other law enforcement agency) is NOT going to contact you through a web pop-up. You should not pay the ransom in any cases. Actually this ransomware is distributed all over the Internet. It is mostly caused by people clicking on malicious links, opening spam emails or downloading music and viewing legal pornography. If it pops up on your device, an immediate removal is needed.
We used to think that Apple iOS gadgets were pretty immune to viruses and malware. Sadly, over the past year hackers have turned their attention to our mobile gear. Usually, the installation of Apple ID Blocked Scam Virus can be completed in a short time and then it pops up immediately to lock your iphone or ipad without signs if you visit a phishing site, open a junk e-mail attachment, click on an unknown link or download an application from an unsafe source. You will be easily get infected by this virus after you jailbreak your device.
It will block your Internet access once it is downloaded.
It will pretend itself as a legitimate warning to lock you out of Safari or Chrome browser.
It will not let you exit the blocked page even you have restarted the device a million times.
It can block all types of antivirus apps.
1. This message can run on iPhone, iPad, iPod or other Apple devices.
2. Don’t pay for anything or provide your personal information to this hoax, it won’t help unlock Safari/Chrome, but just waste your money.
3. Currently antivirus apps are unable to detect or remove this malware.
4. There is no anti-malware software that can detect 100% of the malware out there.
Since viruses are quite inevitable, there are some tips you can avoid being fallen into U.S. Marshals Warning Scam in the future:
1. Be careful of downloading applications in the internet because many of them are just cloned applications. Visit legitimate app stores like Apple Store because it filters out the reliable application from what’s not reliable. Most viruses are from gaming and anti-virus applications which are forged. Before downloading an application, try to read some customer reviews so that you will be assured that it is truly a trusted app. Stick with apps from App Store and don’t jailbreak your device and install apps from third-parties.
2. Be cautious at opening attachments thru MMS, SMS messages and e-mails because you might open an unknown attachment from unknown sender. Never open any attachments which are suspicious to you.
3. Don’t open your Bluetooth connection when not in need. It would be easy for the virus to go inside the phone’s application and destroy the phone’s performance.
4. Read the permissions. Every app you install has to declare its permissions, meaning the app lists what it will have access to on your phone. Don’t just click OK without reading what the app will do.
U.S. Marshals Warning uses javascript to block user’s Internet access and prevent them from going online properly. It uses scare tactic to deceive people into paying the ransom without unblocking their device. Obviously it is a hoax. The virus rapidly spreads over the Internet and has infected thousands of devices at an alarming rate. There is no anti-malware apps that can delete the virus automatically. Worse still it won’t go away unless you have removed all its components step by step. Even in some cases it may disappear itself for a while to let you get Internet access back, but your device is still unsafe. It is still a threat for your privacy. To completely get this off iPhone or iPad, you can contact YooCare PC experts 24/7 online for help right now.
Published by on May 30, 2016 3:37 am, last updated on June 27, 2016 4:19 am
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