Merry Christmas Icon Virus!

[Selvos]

Hi I'm new here, but thought I might bring something up.

Today on my phone there was a small icon on the homescreen that read "merry christmas" and had a picture of santa claus (or something like that).
I clicked on it and it disappeared.

I ran a scan and found the ginmaster virus hidden in an app I've had for a couple years

Has anyone had this experience? Is this merry christmas icon a virus?

I've tried searching and have found nothing on the topic.

 

[B. Diddy]

Here's info on that virus:

Trojan:Android/GinMaster.A | Malware Alert

 

[Selvos]

Thanks. But I think the Merry Christmas icon is different than the ginmaster virus. I've never seen anything like what was described in the link.

 

[B. Diddy]

Yeah, I can't find anything either. What antivirus scanner do you use? It might be worthwhile to try several different scanners like Lookout and Avast to see if one might have more success than another.

 

[Selvos]

I have Avast. I'll download lookout and run a scan.

 

[Selvos]

Hmmm seems like scan froze...Probably gotta reboot. Ugh can't wait for my DNA.

or should I go windows...hmm...

 

[Androidwire]

I got that screen today I use avast scanner but found nothing.

 

[LaFlamme]

Hey, I'm glad somebody brought this up. I had this issue around Halloween and now I'm getting the Christmas greeting. Falling snow, Santa riding across my screen, the words Merry Christmas and then it's gone. I don't get the feeling it's a virus, but I don't like it. My suspicion -- based on nothing at all -- is that it's a GoLauncher greeting sent out by the app developers. It's a nice thought, but most of us don't unfamiliar stuff floating across our screens, no matter what the intentions. I'm on a rooted Optimus V with Harmonia 2. If anybody identifies the culprit, I'd love to know.

UPDATE: Aha! Somebody on another thread tracked it down. It is indeed the Go Launcher. It's a function you can turn on and off. Kind of irritating that they'd introduce something like that without any warning, but I suppose it could have been in some of the update literature.