iPhone users warned over prank site that crashes phone

Pranksters have been sharing a link to a website that crashes iPhones and computers using Safari.

When users try to open the not-too-subtly named crashsafari.co, the link "overloads the default browser with a self-generating text string which populates the address bar," explains The Guardian.

It causes an iPhone using Safari to reboot within 20 seconds, drains the battery and makes the console heat up significantly as the phone tries in vain to handle the very long and complex code.

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Once rebooted, the phone performs as normal.

Other iOS devices such as the iPad can also fall victim to the website, while Android phones will go sluggish and heat up noticeably, too.

The affect it has on computers depends on how powerful they are. It can crash a Mac running Safari but makes PCs running other browsers such as Chrome slow down.

According to Wired, crashsafari was put on the internet by Matthew Bryant, 22, a San Francisco-based developer working in app security.

"In my spare time, I often test how browsers will handle odd code that gets thrown at them," he told them.

Bryant stumbled across the crashing potential of the code from his independent work and hosted it online as "purely a joke."

Since then, it has spread like wildfire across social media websites.

In order to bait people into clicking, users are circumventing the site's giveaway name by using URL shorteners, combined with misleading information as to what lies in store if the link is opened.

It's not the first time the iPhone in particular has been prone to a crashing glitch exploited by pranksters. Last year, the "effective power" bug had the power to reset phones and could be sent via a text message.

"It was even more malicious than crashsafari, as anyone who opened a message containing the special code suffered from constant iPhone reboots," says The Telegraph.

"iPhone users in particular should be careful about clicking on unknown links for the near future," they add.