iPhone malware

This is phishing scam and unless you are responding to it, should be ignored and deleted.

See this link --> Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

The original email was a scam. You have now installed spyware on your phone by downloading the new free app that you DID NOT download from the app store. The only solution here is to restore your phone to factory settings as described in this Apple support article—>Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to factory settings - Apple Support

After you do that if you have a backup that was made before you installed this spyware app you can restore that backup. If you don’t have such a backup you will have to set up your phone from scratch.

ADDENDUM: If you provided a credit card number contact your bank and report fraud and have the card canceled

I just checked, there is such an app in the app store, with terrible reviews saying it is a scam. I’ve reported it.

Go to Settings/[your name]/iTunes & App Store. Tap on your Apple ID and log in. Tap on Subscriptions, find it and cancel the subscription. If you are actually charged go to this link and request a refund—>Request a refund for apps or content that you bought from Apple - Apple Support. If the automated system says you are not entitled contact a live person—>iTunes Store - Contact Us - Official Apple Support

I sympathize - I'm 50 miles from an Apple Store myself and in these times am not expecting it to be open in my state. I'm not tech-expert and am now in the process of figuring out how to wipe my phone and restore it. Btw, Lawrence, "The only solution here is to restore your phone to factory settings as described in this Apple support article—>Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to factory settings - Apple Support" is good advice but the link only takes you so far - they don't tell you in that link how to bring back in my backup. (And, I'd like that app to be GONE but my auto-backup contains it, and I haven't yet been able to figure out how to erase the thing.) But I'll get there. I'm with Karpani, thanks very much!

This just happened to me, too. Because the popup used the Settings logo AND the Apple logo, I clicked on it. And it did take me to the Apple Store, where I STUPIDLY downloaded the Guard Test app. YES IT WAS THE APPLE STORE. The app told me that in three days it will charge me $129.99 unless I cancel the subscription. The Apple Store description says to go to settings to cancel. There is no apparent place to do this, "About Subscription" being closest. When I click on that, the app never opens it. "Rate Us" goes nowhere. HOW IS IT THAT THE APPLE STORE IS CARRYING THIS APP?? I'm in Apple because I thought it would help me avoid this Stuff, and now I'm spending hours. Learning my lesson, of course.

Your auto-backup does not contain the app, it contains only data. Apps are not saved in your iCloud; the cloud symbol simply means it can be redownloaded from the app store. If you have a backup from before you installed that app you can restore that; if you back up to iCloud there should be the 2 most recent backups that you can restore.

You’re welcome! What is strange about this case is that probably 99% of the time popups like that direct you to a suspicious site rather than the app store, which is why the first posted reaction assumed that. But this is a case of a rogue app that some how got into the App Store. I’ve reported it through the Host team, and they will escalate it to the proper team. When I reported it a couple of other developers who are also volunteers in the forum complained that they had to jump through hoops to get their apps into the app store, and wondered how this one made the cut.

On your phone (assuming that’s the device in question), open Settings > AppleID > Subscriptions and select the subscription. You should be able to cancel it from there.

You took the shortcut😏

THANK YOU

PERFECT, THX

Lawrence Finch wrote:

You took the shortcut😏

Always😜

Thank you kindly!