If you receive this link, DON’T open it: Scary “text bomb” will cause your device to crash

We’re always warning you about the latest activity from cybercriminals. That’s because it’s important to know what new attacks look like and how to defend against them.

One of the best defenses against viral scams is being able to recognize them in advance. You don’t want your gadget to get infected with malware, ransomware, or a bug that causes all kinds of technical issues.

Sometimes, bugs like those don’t even come from cybercriminals, they can come from pranksters or friends. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what’s happening right now.

iMessage overload

A new bug was recently discovered by Twitter user Abraham Masri. It’s being dubbed chaiOS.

What’s happening is, Apple users are receiving text messages that contain the malicious link. Of course, if the message comes from a friend, why would you think it’s malicious?

If you click on the link it can cause your Messages app to crash, force your gadget to return to the lockscreen or even restart your gadget on a loop. This impacts iOS and macOS devices alike.

Here is what’s causing the problem. Once the victim clicks on the malicious link, the app gets bombarded by an overload of coding, causing it to crash indefinitely.