Malware Protection for iPhone & iOS - Needed?

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Last month I acquired my first iPhone (XR) and the first half dozen calls I received were likely spam/ads (picked up the first two - did not answer the others) - this has continue w/ few legitimate calls ringing the device; at home we have a landline and talking caller ID - the phone rings a lot but the numbers and identifications are likely spam/robocalls/ads/etc, so we rarely even answer the phone (will this be addressed in Congress - maybe or not from recent news?).

During the last week+, I've been going through a 3-part 'Cybersecurity Course' w/ Alexander Oni (got a promo of $10/part so not much to lose and he has been enjoyable) - now on the 'Mobile' discussions and wondering what others w/ more and much longer experience w/ the iPhone have done? The App iOS store has plenty of offers (see 2nd pic - just the first page!). At the least, can any of these apps prevent the phone from ringing if the source is an ad/robocall/spam/etc? Second, is other malware (e.g. Trojans, Ransomware, etc.) really an issue w/ iOS? Thanks for any comments. Dave :)
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Raz0rEdge

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You can employ apps like Hiya (or the robokiller apps you linked to) to help you screen out spam calls and block the neighbor-call spoofing that a lot of people do. But robocalling and just blankly spoofing other numbers is what these annoying people do. If your carrier supports spam blocking (T-Mobile does), enable it. If your carrier supports not allowing "unknown callers" through, enable it. The other thing to do is let any unknown calls just go to voicemail and if it is legitimate, they will leave a voicemail and you can call them back.

The other thing to do is to ensure that all of the places you frequent and that call you back like doctor offices, service stations and so on are stored as contacts in your phone. That way, you can easily ignore the random calls.

As far as malware goes, I've never run into issues with that on the phone and predominantly use Safari
 

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I keep both of our phones in "Do Not Disturb" mode at all times. That blocks calls from anyone who is not on our contact list. That may or may not work for you, it does work for us. Also, as Ashwin pointed out T-Mobile (our carrier) does a fairly good job of blocking spam calls. And, in addition to all that, I use HiYa.
 

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The following isn't necessarily effective but it was fun a few days ago when I tried it. It's the first time I've had one of these spammers hang up on me.

Caller: May I speak to (insert name of fictitious person).
Me: Sorry, there's no one here by that name.
Caller: Maybe you can help me.
Me: ​(interrupting) Before we continue are you paying for what you're selling or am I?
Caller: Continues sales pitch.
Me: (interrupting again)I guess you didn't understand the rules of our little game. Let me explain: If you're paying for whatever you're selling please continue. If I'm paying for it I can ask silly questions and waste your time for hours.
Caller: Click
 
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You can employ apps like Hiya (or the robokiller apps you linked to) to help you screen out spam calls and block the neighbor-call spoofing that a lot of people do. But robocalling and just blankly spoofing other numbers is what these annoying people do. If your carrier supports spam blocking (T-Mobile does), enable it. If your carrier supports not allowing "unknown callers" through, enable it. The other thing to do is let any unknown calls just go to voicemail and if it is legitimate, they will leave a voicemail and you can call them back.

The other thing to do is to ensure that all of the places you frequent and that call you back like doctor offices, service stations and so on are stored as contacts in your phone. That way, you can easily ignore the random calls.

As far as malware goes, I've never run into issues with that on the phone and predominantly use Safari

Thanks Ashwin for the excellent advice - robocalls/spoofing (even my own name!)/etc. has plagued my AT&T landline - as stated before we rarely answer and I would say only 1 or 10 callers leave a message on our answering machine - really irritating - just did not want the same experience w/ my new iPhone - we are w/ Verizon and I need to check my plan on their website - I suspect they have similar features?

If I don't recognize the number on the mobile phone, I've been using the 'voicemail' option - again nothing left to date - :) Dave
 
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I keep both of our phones in "Do Not Disturb" mode at all times. That blocks calls from anyone who is not on our contact list. That may or may not work for you, it does work for us. Also, as Ashwin pointed out T-Mobile (our carrier) does a fairly good job of blocking spam calls. And, in addition to all that, I use HiYa.

Hi Charlie - Ashwin & you both mention Hiya - will check in the App store - thanks for the recommendation. After retiring, my contacts list was markedly reduced in size, now family and friends - most of my personal 'business' calls, I initiate, so the 'Do Not Disturb' which I knew about might not be of much help to me, but will certainly give it a try if my phone is bombarded w/ useless calls. Dave :)
 
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The following isn't necessarily effective but it was fun a few days ago when I tried it. It's the first time I've had one of these spammers hang up on me.

Caller: May I speak to (insert name of fictitious person).
Me: Sorry, there's no one here by that name.
Caller: Maybe you can help me.
Me: ​(interrupting) Before we continue are you paying for what you're selling or am I?
Caller: Continues sales pitch.
Me: (interrupting again)I guess you didn't understand the rules of our little game. Let me explain: If you're paying for whatever you're selling please continue. If I'm paying for it I can ask silly questions and waste your time for hours.
Caller: Click

LOL! Sly - well, my father use to invite the 'religious pilgrims' into his house just to josh w/ them (he was a Bertrand Russell fan and an atheist) - many would leave scratching their heads - funny to see! I get to impatient w/ these people to even want to start a conversation - ;) Dave
 

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I've got something similar planned for those callers who insist upon trying to sell me an extended warranty for our vehicle. The last several calls I've gotten have suggested that our vehicle warranty was about to expire. When we first started getting these calls our car was already almost 10 years old. I didn't even bother to hear the sales pitch.
 
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I've got something similar planned for those callers who insist upon trying to sell me an extended warranty for our vehicle.


An acquaintance I know who started getting a lot of annoying soliciting calls got them stopped after a friend of his told him of his method, and that was to answer the call with something like: Hello, and welcome and thanks for calling. You're on the air.

It seems he only gets a few now.


- Patrick
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Raz0rEdge

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Thanks Ashwin for the excellent advice - robocalls/spoofing (even my own name!)/etc. has plagued my AT&T landline - as stated before we rarely answer and I would say only 1 or 10 callers leave a message on our answering machine - really irritating - just did not want the same experience w/ my new iPhone - we are w/ Verizon and I need to check my plan on their website - I suspect they have similar features?

If I don't recognize the number on the mobile phone, I've been using the 'voicemail' option - again nothing left to date - :) Dave

The unfortunate thing is that the FTC's Do Not Call list is absolutely useless now. The neighbor spoofing is really annoying, but the beauty is that my number's prefix is based out of the town I grew up in (not the town I live in), so that was very easy to screen out. HiYa actually has a feature that will automatically block all neighbor calls and send them to voicemail, the phone doesn't even ring. :)

With the exponential rise of roboacalls recently, there has been talk abut legislation that will force the carriers to do more to prevent it.

There is actually a variation of these calls when you get billed for taking a call, so you have to pay close attention to your bill to avoid those calls.
 
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The unfortunate thing is that the FTC's Do Not Call list is absolutely useless now. The neighbor spoofing is really annoying, but the beauty is that my number's prefix is based out of the town I grew up in (not the town I live in), so that was very easy to screen out. HiYa actually has a feature that will automatically block all neighbor calls and send them to voicemail, the phone doesn't even ring. :)

With the exponential rise of roboacalls recently, there has been talk abut legislation that will force the carriers to do more to prevent it.

There is actually a variation of these calls when you get billed for taking a call, so you have to pay close attention to your bill to avoid those calls.

Thanks again Ashwin for the additional explanations - my carrier, Verison actually has a 'free & paid' spam-blocker called Call Filter - the app is already on my iPhone - although the reviews are rather poor in the App store, I've not gotten any calls in days (in part, may be the 'newness' of my number?) - Consumer Reports discusses the issue in the link about potential changes in FCC rules and Congressional rules about these obnoxious calls - Dave :)
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...can any of these apps prevent the phone from ringing if the source is an ad/robocall/spam/etc?

Yes, they work really well. I personally use NoMoRobo, and love it, but there are services that do more than just block spam phone calls. They all seem to have free trials, so you can decide if it's working for you for yourself.

YouMail
Will stop your phone from ringing with calls from robocallers and deliver a message that your number is out of service so they won't call again. $60/year
https://www.youmail.com/

Truecaller
The world's best Caller ID & Spam Blocking app | Truecaller

RoboKiller
RoboKiller: Spam Call Blocker on the App Store
Stop Unwanted Robocalls & Telemarketers with RoboKiller

Mr. Number
Mr. Number - Identify spammers and block calls & texts on your mobile phone

Nomorobo
http://www.nomorobo.com

Hiya
https://hiya.com/

Some of these do really cool things like send a false message to the spammers that your line has been disconnected, so you are taken off their call list, and others even get even with the spammers by wasting their time!


Second, is other malware (e.g. Trojans, Ransomware, etc.) really an issue w/ iOS? Thanks for any comments. Dave :)


There is no malware for an ordinary (non-jailbroken) iPhone/iPad (i.e. iOS). The reason that there is no malware for iOS is simple: there is only one source for software for the iPhone, and that is Apple's own App Store. Apple vets all software submitted to the App Store and tests for malware. So, there is no vector for malware to get onto your iPhone/iPad. It's a huge selling feature of Apple's iOS devices. There has been a lot of Android malware.

For the querulous, yes, there *have* been a very few instances where Apple mistakenly approved apps that were malicious. But Apple is very sensitive to this matter and they have been good about pulling such apps immediately once found out. Chances are that not a single person on this discussion list has ever encountered true iOS malware.
 
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@RadDave, the Verizon blocker did not work for me. It didn't detect that I am a Verizon customer, probably because I have the Verizon account in the e-sim and have an EE sim in the slot for when I visit the UK. The software didn't read the Verizon data, so the app didn't let me even finish the install.
 
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Yes, they work really well. I personally use NoMoRobo, and love it, but there are services that do more than just block spam phone calls. They all seem to have free trials, so you can decide if it's working for you for yourself.

YouMail
Will stop your phone from ringing with calls from robocallers and deliver a message that your number is out of service so they won't call again. $60/year
https://www.youmail.com/

Truecaller
The world's best Caller ID & Spam Blocking app | Truecaller......................

There is no malware for an ordinary (non-jailbroken) iPhone/iPad (i.e. iOS). The reason that there is no malware for iOS is simple: there is only one source for software for the iPhone, and that is Apple's own App Store..............

Hi Randy - many thanks for your comments and the multiple links - will explore all just to understand the options - so far, my iPhone has not rung for 3-4 days w/ any 'non-wanted' calls - the Verizon app may be the explanation in part - don't know? Dave
 
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@RadDave, the Verizon blocker did not work for me. It didn't detect that I am a Verizon customer, probably because I have the Verizon account in the e-sim and have an EE sim in the slot for when I visit the UK. The software didn't read the Verizon data, so the app didn't let me even finish the install.

Hi Jake - well, the Verizon app installed on my iPhone (and activated it on wife's new iPhone) - pic of the Spam setting below, now set at the 'highest risk' level - unfortunately, I cannot see a setting or area that tallies up the 'blocked calls' for me - maybe if I was willing to pay the $3/month extra for the Plus version, more information/options would be provided? At any rate, not being bothered at the moment and will start exploring some of Randy's links. Thanks. Dave
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