Possible hijack? help please

[KarmaPolice1986]

Hello everyone,
Having a problem with my samsung s4. about a month ago this thing started where anytime i try to browse the web, my browser gets redirected to porn sites or ad sites. i tried several browsers but with no success. Either that or i'll get messages like "whatsapp has expired, click to renew now" or "your samsung s4 has 42 unresolved problems. click next to fix them now"

I've tried removing apps, clearing the cache for all apps and nothing worked. i installed several antivirus programs, adaware and the like and to no avail. everything comes back clean. so i had to hard reset and after an hour or so the redirecting came back again.

this makes surfing the net a nightmare. both on wifi and on mobile data.
so i took dad's phone, turned on wifi and tried looking for solutions from there... and boom here we go again from there as well. so i thought it might have been an issue with the wifi. so i did a reset of the router as well. did not work either.

Still though, not sure it really is the wifi, as my laptop has not been affected. so how can it be that two phones in the same house have the same issue? dad only uses that phone for work. he barely knows how to open whatsapp, and thats the only app he has on there, which he hasn't used in months. he so rarely uses his phone he doesn't even have a data plan. he'll only turn on wifi at home maybe once in a while.

and still he's getting the same stuff as me.
i'm at a loss for options. any help please????

 

[Golfdriver97]

Hello everyone,
Having a problem with my samsung s4. about a month ago this thing started where anytime i try to browse the web, my browser gets redirected to porn sites or ad sites. i tried several browsers but with no success. Either that or i'll get messages like "whatsapp has expired, click to renew now" or "your samsung s4 has 42 unresolved problems. click next to fix them now"

I've tried removing apps, clearing the cache for all apps and nothing worked. i installed several antivirus programs, adaware and the like and to no avail. everything comes back clean. so i had to hard reset and after an hour or so the redirecting came back again.

this makes surfing the net a nightmare. both on wifi and on mobile data.
so i took dad's phone, turned on wifi and tried looking for solutions from there... and boom here we go again from there as well. so i thought it might have been an issue with the wifi. so i did a reset of the router as well. did not work either.

Still though, not sure it really is the wifi, as my laptop has not been affected. so how can it be that two phones in the same house have the same issue? dad only uses that phone for work. he barely knows how to open whatsapp, and thats the only app he has on there, which he hasn't used in months. he so rarely uses his phone he doesn't even have a data plan. he'll only turn on wifi at home maybe once in a while.

and still he's getting the same stuff as me.
i'm at a loss for options. any help please????

Welcome to the forums.
Back up any data you don't want to lose, and do a reset.

 

[KarmaPolice1986]

Thanks for you reply man

Yes, did one before already...

 

[Rukbat]

Neither phone has an ad blocker or popup blocker running, so you'll see all the ads and popups on both phones. Go to a friend who uses the same ISP and you'll still see them. Go to some public wifi hotspots and you won't, because they use software in the gateway that redirects known ad sites to a single pixel picture which is too small for you to notice. (Although if the site is written a certain way for a banner, that space is taken up whether you see the banner or not, so if you're blocking ad sites [or the hotspot is] you'll see some text, a few inches of blank space, then more text, and wonder what the blank space is.)

It's like changing your mailbox color to prevent all the spam snail mail you get. You can't fix a situation like this on your end. With snail mail you throw it out. With web browsers you install popup and ad blockers. (Most ad blockers require rooting, though, because the way they work is to modify a particular system file.) The browser still asks for the ad or popup, but you never see it.

 

[KarmaPolice1986]

Thanks Rukbat,

This never happened before though. And it's funny it redirects to porn sites... I can barely visit a page or two before it will go berserk, and start telling me whatsapp has expired or why dont i get in touch with some local babes... :/

 

[Avi14]

I suggest you should delete all your browsers, then download Clean Master real time filter, or Aug real time filter, AND CM Security, then download your browsers, this may help.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Avi14]

*AVG

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[KarmaPolice1986]

did yet another hard reset, and havent used the browser since... i downloaded firefox and adblock, and selected the option that firefox has of deleting all cache data when you exit the app...

but why does it all come back clean when i scan with avg, zoner, dr web etc??? i tried everything...

edit: did not work. i tried reaching androidcentral.com from my mobile browser and within two clicks i was redirected to adfoc.us...

this is a nightmare!

 

[KarmaPolice1986]

Apparently.... FIXED Posting this so that it might help someone else.

I did yet another (useless) hard reset. The user Rukbat was absolutely right. Did not have anything to do with either phone.

After said reset, the phone kept redirecting me to porn sites, and ad sites and all that stuff. So I cleaned the cache and the data for all apps, removed all browsers, and downloaded zoner antivirus, ccleaner and cm antivirus. CM security antivirus did find a virus BroadAnywhere, and removed it. But that was not the culprit for all the redirecting.

It still happened.

I downloaded Firefox, and added two extensions: Adblock and Adblock Plus, plus a firewall.

It all still happened, but less frequently than before.

I read about OPENDNS somewhere on the web, and decided to give them a try. I changed the configuration both on my cell phone and on the router itself. Poof, problem seems fixed. No more redirecting, no more ads, no more porn sites. Yay!

I guess all the extra security i put on my phone does not hurt, but the DNS thing was the issue.
Hope this helps

 

[Golfdriver97]

Apparently.... FIXED Posting this so that it might help someone else.

I did yet another (useless) hard reset. The user Rukbat was absolutely right. Did not have anything to do with either phone.

After said reset, the phone kept redirecting me to porn sites, and ad sites and all that stuff. So I cleaned the cache and the data for all apps, removed all browsers, and downloaded zoner antivirus, ccleaner and cm antivirus. CM security antivirus did find a virus BroadAnywhere, and removed it. But that was not the culprit for all the redirecting.

It still happened.

I downloaded Firefox, and added two extensions: Adblock and Adblock Plus, plus a firewall.

It all still happened, but less frequently than before.

I read about OPENDNS somewhere on the web, and decided to give them a try. I changed the configuration both on my cell phone and on the router itself. Poof, problem seems fixed. No more redirecting, no more ads, no more porn sites. Yay!

I guess all the extra security i put on my phone does not hurt, but the DNS thing was the issue.
Hope this helps

Thanks for posting the follow up. Glad it worked out. See you around the forums.

 

[Rukbat]

I read about OPENDNS somewhere on the web, and decided to give them a try. I changed the configuration both on my cell phone and on the router itself. Poof, problem seems fixed.

Now call your internet provider, talk to tech support (and hope they have tech support, not clerks reading canned responses) and tell them that their DNS servers have been poisoned. They're supposed to keep on top of these things. (You can save money by buying oats that have been through the horse, but the quality just isn't the same. Sometimes paying more for internet, TV, etc., pays.)

 

[KarmaPolice1986]

Yes, my friend, but you'd be surprised to hear who my provider is. Big name. Alas...

 

[belodion]

^^^Rukbat is a wise man. I confidently predict that he would not be surprised. I've found that the longer I live, there is very little about human behaviour that can surprise me any more.

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