Possible malware issue, extremely persistent

[DontFretIt]

Basically: Browsing on the internet gives me strange popups.
Such as
"Your android has been infected wih a virus. Press ok to remove it now."
"Your android has been infected with (3) viruses from adult websites please install blablabla..."
You know the kind of popups I am talking about. Started fairly recently, dont remember visiting any weird sites, and I usually try to check apps reputation before installing them.
One of them even opens up a play store page to clean master. (Which makes me kind of wonder if I can still trust the playstore on my phone)
Nonetheless, no matter how I got it. I am pretty sure I do have some malware or worse on my phone.

Steps I tried:
-Install some anti virus and anti malware programs, such as norton, avast, avg and others.
Nothing was found, but the popups remained. Decided to do a factory reset... And theres the weird part, after the factory reset, the problem persisted.
(Bloody hell?)

Before you say its probably a site-related issue, I can assure you it happens on multiple sites which are fairly reliable.

Anyone out there with a possible solution? This seems to be one persistant bugger and I cant find any real info on this.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! These really do sound like browser popups. Try going to Settings/Apps/All, select the browser in question, and Clear Cache and Data.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[DontFretIt]

Well, sure, I'd say the same if it wasnt for the same few 3/4 popups recycling on a lot of sites, even after a reset. Nonetheless, I did what you say, I'll let you know tomorrow.

 

[DontFretIt]

Still the same issue. Multiple sites, same popups. Didnt always have those either. Any ideas?

Edit: Messed around with some things in the application manager, turned some things off, popups stopped. Did see that I have 2 instances of FactoryKeystring , is this normal? Seeing as I have almost no android knowledge, this still stood out to me. Killed quite a few processes, I have no idea which apps I disabled to stop the popups. But this has definetly shown me this is NOT supposed to be on my phone.
So, does anyone have an idea of what I could do? Pretty sure that if this reinstalls itself with a damn factory reset, Its bad, mkay.
Help me out guys, thanks in advance.

 

[B. Diddy]

Wish I could tell you more about that, but I don't have enough experience with it. It might help to turn off the Automatic Restore option in Settings>Backup & restore before doing a factory data reset--that might prevent whatever is causing the problem from automatically reinstalling.

 

[DontFretIt]

Wasnt turned on in the first place. God..damnit... Thanks anyway mate.
Anyone else out there with an idea?

 

[DontFretIt]

bump

 

[wizzrah]

It could be an app that might be displaying the pop-ups. Have you tried using a different browser?

 

[snoopy25]

Funnily enough ive been having this exact issue as well......it certainly is a wierd one...

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

[Teslar74]

I just had the exact same thing happen to me with the "remove virus" button and where it automatically goes to the Google play with the same Virus app to download. Just prior to this happening I was on FB, clicked on a friends posted recipe that took me to a page called "The Whoot". Under the recipe there was an ad for a vegetable growing book. It played for approx 7-10 min. I tried to pause and get out of it but it wouldn't stop and the whole time it had this red arrow moving downward saying add this book to cart but there was no cart. After it was done I went back to the recipe and that's when the msgs started. I pressed all the OK's etc. Then I shut my phone off and left it for awhile. When I got back on I downloaded 2 of the WebDr. Apps. Scanned and set the phone up with protection. (BTW, Everytime I pushed install I got a msg saying there was no connection to Google play. needless to say the apps eventually installed after a few tries). I scanned my Moto x several times but it said everything was clean. I know these viruses can lay low for a week or longer and I'm still doubtful that I've solved the problem so I'm still tinkering with some of the system stuff. I think I might call someone just to make sure there are no extra charges of any kind going on my plan or anything else and I'm going to go on my main computer and change all my PW's. Other then that it would be great if anyone could give me some difinitive answers bc I basically don't know what I'm doing. Thanks in advance for your time and any help you can offer.

 

[delta7]

That's probably that cleaner master app, happens to my phone as well, they must pay for alot of advertising becuase it spams alot of sites.

I run av and nothing shows up.

 

[Teslar74]

Ever since I installed the 2 apps called Dr. Web my problem has gone away. I have it set to scan my phone everyday and so far I have never seen any of these pop ups or warnings again. The scans are all coming up clean. I'll let you know if anything comes up again. I really appreciate everyones help and will continue to watch if anyone is able to figure out what happened in the future. Still open to suggestions because I'm still not 100% convinced that it's gone completely.

 

[King Trivino]

this is my problem also, ive experience many pop ups and i pressed OK, but the problem's still there., factory reset my device and it's still there, downloaded Antivirus and still the pop up is still there.. got any solution for this?? any help is appreciated

 

[arana1]

its been more than one year , you probably dont even have the phone anymore lol, but I had never seen a problem like the one described until today and i saw it in two phones, one was a no brand chinese note 4 knockoff , sorry that one i just told the person you are ****ed, the other one was a huawei recent model, i tried everything, even factory reset from inside the settings and also from the recovery boot screen , nothing worked, until i just decided to flash stock rom again, that solved it.

i was planning on doing the same with the chinese note 4 clone, but there are many of those, each different hardware, and i was not willing to spend 1 day or even more trying to find a stock rom for an unknown manufacturer of an unknown brand in a chinese page that i dont even understand, and that would be if i got lucky, if not i would just never find it lol, so for that other one im going to try to root, and remove all suspicious apps, or just install cyanogen on it (i dont even think its compatible, but maybe some other rom)

 

[recDNA]

I thought those were random ads anyone might get.

 

[Ellnae]

Hello, i got almost the same issue but the difference is that those popups appear all the time whatever im doing on my phone + some notifications on the top. I have my phone for like 2 weeks, a chinese brand called blackview ultra. And i had installed avast security when this issue occured.
So i tried 3 thing to remove that malware :

1. I runned tons of antivirus or malware and only found the probleme : malwarebytes which found a trojan, under the name of "Android/Trojan.Spy.Agent.el " but the app wasn't able to delete it.
2. So I tried to do a method on youtude (the easiest way to Uninstall Malware on an Android Device [How-To] by GadgetHacks (sorry, i cant post links)) but it didnt work either.
3. And finally, i went into settings and did a factory reset but yes ofc, it didnt work either.

Im kinda desperated right now, so if you guys have any solution, i would be really happy to try it !

 

[recDNA]

Might be built into the rom. Is it possible to root the phone and download a different rom? I don't know if root is available for your phone nor if anybody writes roms for it. I returning the phone for money back possible?

 

[Ellnae]

Yes, i saw the root solution indeed but idk if its good for my phone ? And yes, apparently its built into the rom
I managed to desable the malware but not to remove it. Its not a perfect solution, but at least i dont have popups anymore !

 

[recDNA]

Yes, i saw the root solution indeed but idk if its good for my phone ? And yes, apparently its built into the rom
I managed to desable the malware but not to remove it. Its not a perfect solution, but at least i dont have popups anymore !

That's the best you'll do without rooting. I wouldn't attach any bank accounts or credit cards to that phone if I were you. The manufacturer is obviously a little iffy.

 

[Jagdish Sindav]

Hi there!
I got Idea ultra mobile phone. In that a software named "sales tracker" somehow got installed without any notification or my permission. Now I'm trying to uninstall it, there is no option of that just disable one. I tried few antivirus software too, but nothing is working. Please help me it is reducing my mobile phone's performance...!! _/\_