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From: Zaidy036 <Zaidy036@air.isp.spam>
Newsgroups: misc.phone.mobile.iphone
Subject: Re: Alterna VPN, $10/week?
Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2024 13:44:59 -0500
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On 11/19/2024 1:25 PM, Chris wrote:
> micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:
>> Alterna VPN, $10/week?
>>
>> Is that really what it charges?   A friend told me that.
>>
>> The whole story is she got some sort of message on her iphone that she'd
>> been hacked, and it encouraged her to install something to prevent harm.
>> It might specifically have pointed to Alterna, not sure.
>>
>> So she installed Alterna VPN and even though she thinks she already has
>> a virus checker, it said it found 17 viruses.  17!!  Hard to believe.
>> And how dangerous would that be?   What do typical iphone viruses do?
>> Anything terrible?**
>>
>> Should she be able to find a list of the 17 viruses it removed?  In the
>> app?  On the phone?   Knowing what they weere seems worthwhile to me.
>>
>> After that, she saw it was going to cost $10/week to keep the app.
>> That's a lottt of money. But she could find nothing in the app to
>> cancel.  Is that normal for iphone subscriptions?   Together I found
>> where she could go to Settings or on the web, account.apple.com.  She
>> had trouble logging in to account.apple.com, and then once in, coudln't
>> find subsciptions.  I don't have an iphone so I can't omcpare my
>> experience, but is this this strange that she coudln't find
>> Subscriptions there.     Even if cancellation must be through one of
>> those two methods, shouldnt' there be a noticeable sentece in the app
>> saying, To cancel, got to Settings" or is everyone supposed to know that
>> by now?
>>    She did find Subscriptions in the Settings and cancelled and it was
>> only in the free trial stage, and it said it was now expriring 2 days
>> from now.  All is good.
> 
> I agree that removing subscriptions could be easier.
> 
>> But I wonder about that first message. Does apple or something really
>> send messages that one has been hacked and suggestions to install a
>> particular app or kind of app?
> 
> Nope.
> 
>> And how could she have 17 viruses if she's running an AV program,
>> probably the one recommended early on.
>>
>> She's about 75, still afraid to do anything on the phone now.  Earlier
>> she was unwilling to use her MAC because it wasnt' recently updated.
>> PC's get software updates too, but aiui they are either for new
>> features, or to close vulnerabilities.  Onne can still use them without
>> the updates and it won't make infection more likely, right?
> 
> Wrong. Updates are there to secure the device/computer from vulnerabilities
> as well as adding new features. Not updating is a Bad Idea™
> 
> Also
>> unwilling to use her husband's PC because of this, I guess for fear the
>> creepy crawlies that are part of her aura now will harm his PC.
>>
>>
>> **I'm not sure if she uses her phone for banking or credit cards, but
>> assume someone does, but they never save their password, not even in a
>> password encrypition app.   Still when you type in the password, it's in
>> memory for at last a while, until it's overlaid.  Are there any viruses
>> that can find a password there, even though you only entered it, didnt'
>> save it.
> 
> I'm afraid all you've described above is scam101. Hopefully it was just an
> attempt to get her to buy an extortionist service.
> 
> A VPN has nothing to do with viruses and the message either came from
> elsewhere or was simply a further inducement to keep the app. iphone
> viruses are extremely rare. iOS doesn't normally need an antivirus as all
> apps are installed from the app store which has lots of security controls
> to remove malware long before anything gets installed.
> 
If paid by credit card cancel with the card.