Pop up on almost every website I visit saying I have a damaging virus?

[caityd24]

pop up on almost every website i visit saying i have a damaging virus

Everytime I use Chrome or the basic Internet on my brand new Galaxy S7 I get a pop up from different websites (www.androidhelpa.xyz, doubleesecurity.com, mobiflood.com etc) with a Google heading that says " Your browser is heavily damaged by (#) virus! We detect that your Generic Android 6.0 is 28.1% damaged because of harmful viruses from recent adult sites. it will damage your phones sim card and will corrupt your contacts photos and data. if you do not remove the virus now it will cause serious damage". It asks me to hit the Repair Now button. I have downloaded AVG antivirus and Malware Bytes and they can't find anything wrong. I also uninstalled Chrome, have not downloaded any applications and have reset all my settings. It is still popping up. I have only had my phone for 1 week and I don't get how to fix this! Please help!!

 

[Sue Tayper]

Re: pop up on almost every website i visit saying i have a damaging virus

What sites are you visiting when it happens? I seem to get the popup occasionally after following a Facebook link. Yesterday it was a link to the politifact website. Since the popup kept recycling when I tried to back out of it, I pressed the x button in the upper left and it let me go. Previously I got the lottery popups. My procedure in Chrome after getting away from the popup is to immediately click the three dots in the upper right, choose History, then Clear Browsing Data, and check the top three boxes. I keep my saved passwords like Facebook, though that may be where the vulnerability hides.

It seems the popups are related to websites that allow their "advertising" or have security vulnerabilities, not to an app on your phone. But I could be wrong.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Re: pop up on almost every website i visit saying i have a damaging virus

What sites are you visiting when it happens? I seem to get the popup occasionally after following a Facebook link. Yesterday it was a link to the politifact website. Since the popup kept recycling when I tried to back out of it, I pressed the x button in the upper left and it let me go. Previously I got the lottery popups. My procedure in Chrome after getting away from the popup is to immediately click the three dots in the upper right, choose History, then Clear Browsing Data, and check the top three boxes. I keep my saved passwords like Facebook, though that may be where the vulnerability hides.

It seems the popups are related to websites that allow their "advertising" or have security vulnerabilities, not to an app on your phone. But I could be wrong.

You are more than likely correct. If everything is linked to your browser, that is the culprit. Sadly, I wish Chrome would allow a report to be filed against phishing like this.

 

[Tim1954]

Adguard works well...

 

[cbreze]

Have you tried clearing browser history? Seems to be add/ware mal/ware. I get these on my iPad from time to time and clearing browser history always fixes it. A cache cleaning along with the history cleaning might be a good idea, can't hurt.

 

[1812dave]

How about a Factory Reset?

 

[johnd55]

Ok what you have is a redirect program. I loaded McAffee and Malwarebytes and neither found it.

I found from searching that it uses your Google advertising ID to create the popups every time. you can reset your ID by going to Google Settings (it looks like your settings but with a G in the middle)>Ads>Reset Advertising ID.

While your at it you may want to get rid of any recent installed apps, as some people say that may have been the source. I think mine showed up when I was trying to log on at a hotel.

I have been without a pop up for 5 hours...fingers crossed.

 

[anon(749368)]

Re: pop up on almost every website i visit saying i have a damaging virus

Go to settings, applications, and clear data and cache on your Web browser app. Restart phone and it should be as new

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[darberg314]

Like others here, I began getting this pop-up on my LG G4 last night on Google Chrome
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
gpfree0097.pws says:
Your system is heavily damaged by Four virus!.

We detect that your LG G4 is 28.1% DAMAGED because of four harmful viruses from recent adult sites. Soon it will damage your phone's SIM card and will corrupt your contacts, photos, data, applications, etc.

If you do not remove the virus now, it will cause severe damage to your phone. Here's what you NEED to do (step by step);

Step 1: Tap the button and install APP for free on Google Play!

Step 2: Open the app to speed up and fix your browser now!

WARNING!

This LG G4 is infected with viruses and your browser is seriously damaged. You need to remove viruses and make corrections immediately.

It is necessary to remove and fix now.

Don't close this window.

**If you leave, you will be at risk**
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I did not click on the fix and did close the page. I cleared the cache and deleted browsing history but still it continues to pop up.

Does anyone know if this is a real threat and if so, how to get rid of it? Also, if it is not a legitimate threat, how can I get rid of the pop-up?

I have not downloaded anything recently and I do not visit adult websites. Most of my time is spent on email, Facebook, health and genealogy websites. Also, my phone is functioning the same as before with no loss or damage to phone, data, photos etc.
Thanks for your help.

 

[justnivek]

I only get this when visiting "certain" sites. Adult sites I guess you could say.

What freaks me out is the phone starts to vibrate too which is a little weird cause I didn't know chrome could do that?

But its always in incognito mode and consistently with those sites only. I've never gotten it thru any other browsers or websites

 

[lmandl]

I get that on occasion from Facebook links. You've got to clear your history. If it's still in your history, it'll still pop up. It's not a virus. I've had mine scanned and nothing is found (Verizon has their own virus software installed on all phones). So clear your history and then restart your phone and you should be ok.

 

[darberg314]

After doing some searching, I found out (gpfree0097.pws) is phishing. I have turned off wifi on my phone until I can find further information on how to remove it although it doesn't seem to be active and most likely needs you to follow their instructions to activate it.

 

[ianpegg]

I found from searching that it uses your Google advertising ID to create the popups every time. you can reset your ID by going to Google Settings (it looks like your settings but with a G in the middle)>Ads>Reset Advertising ID.

Thanks for the great advice @johnd55 -- that seems to have done the trick, fingers crossed!

I originally encountered this annoying pop up when I went to do a search in Google Play Store. I initially followed the advice in this guide. Specifically, I went through the following process:

• Boot device into safe mode
• I hadn't recently downloaded any new apps, so I only uninstalled some old ones I no longer used
• Reset the ad id (under 'Settings' --> 'Google' --> 'Ads')
• Wipe the app cache (under 'Settings' --> 'Storage')
• Clear data for the Google Play Store app (under 'Settings' --> 'Application Manager' --> [App Name] --> 'Storage' --> 'Clear Data')
• Re-boot into recovery mode and wipe the cache partition (power off, then hold down [power]+[home]+[volume up])

At first glance, this seemed to do the job. But later that day I clicked on a link to somebody's Google+ profile from their YouTube profile and the same message appeared again! I went through the same process once more, this time also clearing the app data for the G+ app too. This time I thought I'd done it.

But then the same thing happened this morning too, when I went to open Chrome! So, determined to solve the problem, I went through the same process once more, but this time clearing the app data for every Google app I have. Most importantly, Chrome.

Slow and steady wins the race -- since this discussion is about encountering the issue in Chrome, I really should've identified that as the culprit sooner. It was the fact I initially encountered the issue in the Play Store that threw me. I had a bunch of tabs open in Chrome (not adult in nature, I hasten to add), and I suspect one of those tabs must've been displaying a booby-trapped ad. Now that I've cleared the app data for Chrome, all my tabs have gone, and so far, no more annoying popups! I'm hoping I won't have to post another update, but will keep everyone informed if it comes back.

 

[Cinnamon Applesauce]

Re: pop up on almost every website i visit saying i have a damaging virus

What sites are you visiting when it happens? I seem to get the popup occasionally after following a Facebook link. Yesterday it was a link to the politifact wwebsite.

I've gotten the same except it identifies my phone by model & manufactur. Droid/Motorola.

It happened twice now and I have been politfact a number of times too.

 

[Biffsmith81]

Re: pop up on almost every website i visit saying i have a damaging virus

Everytime I use Chrome or the basic Internet on my brand new Galaxy S7 I get a pop up from different websites (www.androidhelpa.xyz, doubleesecurity.com, mobiflood.com etc) with a Google heading that says " Your browser is heavily damaged by (#) virus! We detect that your Generic Android 6.0 is 28.1% damaged because of harmful viruses from recent adult sites. it will damage your phones sim card and will corrupt your contacts photos and data. if you do not remove the virus now it will cause serious damage". It asks me to hit the Repair Now button. I have downloaded AVG antivirus and Malware Bytes and they can't find anything wrong. I also uninstalled Chrome, have not downloaded any applications and have reset all my settings. It is still popping up. I have only had my phone for 1 week and I don't get how to fix this! Please help!!

I have a low tech solution. Had the same issue everytime i opened chrome so i opened a new tab then deleted the tab with the message. Seems to be ok so far.

 

[Biffsmith81]

Re: pop up on almost every website i visit saying i have a damaging virus

Everytime I use Chrome or the basic Internet on my brand new Galaxy S7 I get a pop up from different websites (www.androidhelpa.xyz, doubleesecurity.com, mobiflood.com etc) with a Google heading that says " Your browser is heavily damaged by (#) virus! We detect that your Generic Android 6.0 is 28.1% damaged because of harmful viruses from recent adult sites. it will damage your phones sim card and will corrupt your contacts photos and data. if you do not remove the virus now it will cause serious damage". It asks me to hit the Repair Now button. I have downloaded AVG antivirus and Malware Bytes and they can't find anything wrong. I also uninstalled Chrome, have not downloaded any applications and have reset all my settings. It is still popping up. I have only had my phone for 1 week and I don't get how to fix this! Please help!!

I have a low tech solution that worked for me. This happened every time i opened chrome so i opened a new tab and deleted the tab with the message and not had a problem since.

 

[prasax]

I resolved it by disabiling (unistalling) Chrome and then re-enabling it via App manager on my Galaxy S6 Plus.

 

[hwhspat]

Re: pop up on almost every website i visit saying i have a damaging virus

What sites are you visiting when it happens? I seem to get the popup occasionally after following a Facebook link. Yesterday it was a link to the politifact website. Since the popup kept recycling when I tried to back out of it, I pressed the x button in the upper left and it let me go. Previously I got the lottery popups. My procedure in Chrome after getting away from the popup is to immediately click the three dots in the upper right, choose History, then Clear Browsing Data, and check the top three boxes. I keep my saved passwords like Facebook, though that may be where the vulnerability hides.

It seems the popups are related to websites that allow their "advertising" or have security vulnerabilities, not to an app on your phone. But I could be wrong.

OK so many of us visit adult sites or torrent sites. Idk if this is the case with you but when I get those messages I just delete my history and they don't come back until I visit those sites again. Hope this helps.

 

[wgs84]

Re: pop up on almost every website i visit saying i have a damaging virus

OK so many of us visit adult sites or torrent sites. Idk if this is the case with you but when I get those messages I just delete my history and they don't come back until I visit those sites again. Hope this helps.

You can get scareware just from visiting any ad-heavy website without an adblocker. My dad has a Galaxy Tab 3 10.1, and he only uses it to read one news website. One time, the tablet just started blaring this loud siren and when he showed the screen to me, I saw a "SCAN NOW!!" message. Instantly recognized it as scareware. Since then, I've installed Firefox with uBlock on it and told him to use only that. I used to feel guilty about blocking ads, but when crap like that happens, I don't anymore.

I've done the same on my GS7. Firefox and uBlock. I still use the built-in browser for certain websites, but for random browsing, there is no way I'd browse without adblock.

 

[Inders99]

Samsung browser with AdBlockPlus...done.