Popup says "Your cell may have a virus"

[SMD]

On my wife's S3 last night she got a random popup (on her home screen) that said:

"Your cell may have a virus" with two buttons to select labeled: "No Thanks" and "Get help". I didn't hit either out of a fear that it was somehow something bad no matter which button I selected. So I restarted the phone and it went away. There was no other way to back out of it or ignore it.

My other thought was maybe it was just some popup ad of some sort on my wife's phone and if I hit "get help" it would then take me to some anti-virus app. That's what I'm thinking it was now.

Anyone seen this before or know what it's about?

 

[meyerweb#CB]

If you don't have an anti-virus app installed already, tapping "get help" could be a lot worse than taking you to an anti-virus app. I would look at recently installed apps as the likely source.

You can install a legitimate anti-virus app (search the Play store) and let it run to see what it finds, but I think you did the right thing by not tapping either of those buttons.

 

[MrDoh]

Yep, clicking on those things gives them permission to install malware...Restarting your phone sounds like exactly the right thing to do. I've seen these on computers several times, and the best thing to do there is to just restart, or power off, or whatever, so you don't touch anything that belongs to that popup. I did find one instance of this on google, where a popup window like that came with an app, so chances are that's what happened. So yes, take a look at the last apps that you've downloaded and think about whether you really need them *smile*.

 

[japetty]

Don't click on the popup. I can say you will have nothing but issues. It is more than likely an advertisement you get from an app you downloaded to the phone for free. Those free apps come with strings attached, nothing is really free.

 

[SMD]

She seems to get lots of weird apps pushed to her phone. I think "Pintrest" was causing much of that but I've since removed it from her phone. Now, weeks later this happened. Strange. Maybe meyerweb is right, I should download an anti-virus app on her phone and run a scan or something. Fortunately, my S3 doesn't have the same issues.

 

[krazyfj]

I'm getting "Android Warning" virus detected, then a button to remove virus, then under that it says "google play". I down loaded AVG but the only thing it found was a suspicious text message from directtv, how do I get rid of the warning?

 

[Good OL MC]

She seems to get lots of weird apps pushed to her phone. I think "Pintrest" was causing much of that but I've since removed it from her phone. Now, weeks later this happened. Strange. Maybe meyerweb is right, I should download an anti-virus app on her phone and run a scan or something. Fortunately, my S3 doesn't have the same issues.

I would just reset the phone at this point. Never hurts. She downloaded a crappy app and it is spamming her. Like someone said earlier: those free apps can have strings attached.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

 

[GSDer]

krazyfj,
You have almost certainly installed an app that is spamming you with this warning (to get you to install some other crapware).

You can try:
Mobile Security & Antivirus: https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...m.avast.android.mobilesecurity&token=AV2SFRH1
Addons Detector: https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...s?id=com.denper.addonsdetector&token=E_PmaHsh
Lookout Ad Network Detector: https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...ails?id=com.lookout.addetector&token=BIwxlSDX
AirPush Detector: https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...d=com.brosmike.airpushdetector&token=3ta6iEkI

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM 10.2 using Tapatalk 4

 

[AxlMyk]

ALWAYS read the reviews before installing an app. People report things like that.

--Tapatalk on SGS3.

 

[Sonjams1]

I was on Classic Opera Browser on my Galaxy S3 and I was searching for an animated birthday pic for a niece, Google of course! Anyhoo, when I clicked on the pic it said something about a locked site, I just thought that it meant you cant hotlink so i clicked on "go to site". Then a screen came up saying a virus called Tapsnake has been detected and to remove immediately click "ok". Without thinking i clicked but then it showed this screen on the pic i am posting and i took a screen shot then closed the browser and turned my phone completely off then back on, i just felt safer doing this, and giving it a minute b4 turning back on, instead of restarting. Then I looked up a few words from the web address and came to Android Central! I had forgotten all about this site! So I see we can post pics so here it is, what do we do when we get something like this pop up and is there somewhere we can report it to? Oh and by the way, I immediately went to the playstore and downloaded and antivirus app from there and did a scan, the only thing that came up was an app called "Rotten Friends", it's a Halloween/Gore photo editing app that I downloaded b4 Halloween! Nothing about any virus or Tapsnake or such! THANK GOD!

 

[rxgadget]

I was on Classic Opera Browser on my Galaxy S3 and I was searching for an animated birthday pic for a niece, Google of course! Anyhoo, when I clicked on the pic it said something about a locked site, I just thought that it meant you cant hotlink so i clicked on "go to site". Then a screen came up saying a virus called Tapsnake has been detected and to remove immediately click "ok". Without thinking i clicked but then it showed this screen on the pic i am posting and i took a screen shot then closed the browser and turned my phone completely off then back on, i just felt safer doing this, and giving it a minute b4 turning back on, instead of restarting. Then I looked up a few words from the web address and came to Android Central! I had forgotten all about this site! So I see we can post pics so here it is, what do we do when we get something like this pop up and is there somewhere we can report it to? Oh and by the way, I immediately went to the playstore and downloaded and antivirus app from there and did a scan, the only thing that came up was an app called "Rotten Friends", it's a Halloween/Gore photo editing app that I downloaded b4 Halloween! Nothing about any virus or Tapsnake or such! THANK GOD!View attachment 93675

First thing is un install everything that you did not want on your phone. I had a couple weird text messages cone through but luckily nothing if these pop up screens. Consider s Factory Reset and choose to install everything on your own and not what Google chooses or has in memory. This way you control what is on your phone.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[Sonjams1]

there's tons i dnt want on here like all the at&t preinstalled! But then I have to root, and although theres umteen million videos n how to's, i dont want to brick my phone and i havent figured out what reasons i need to, or what i would root for! i dont understand all the rom talk n stuff! im not worried about the warranty, cause truth be told, i have better insurance on my phone from where i got it, n all id have to do is stomp it into oblivian to get a new replacement! Its just the living w/out for a few days!

 

[GSDer]

Sonjams1,
If you installed and ran one of the well-known anti-virus apps like Lookout: https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...re/apps/details?id=com.lookout&token=nxyryqe4 then you should be safe. You could also try something like AirPush Detector: https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...d=com.brosmike.airpushdetector&token=H0LfBJu_ just to see if any crapware got installed.

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM 10.2 using Tapatalk 4

 

[cheycheyk7]

I was on Classic Opera Browser on my Galaxy S3 and I was searching for an animated birthday pic for a niece, Google of course! Anyhoo, when I clicked on the pic it said something about a locked site, I just thought that it meant you cant hotlink so i clicked on "go to site". Then a screen came up saying a virus called Tapsnake has been detected and to remove immediately click "ok". Without thinking i clicked but then it showed this screen on the pic i am posting and i took a screen shot then closed the browser and turned my phone completely off then back on, i just felt safer doing this, and giving it a minute b4 turning back on, instead of restarting. Then I looked up a few words from the web address and came to Android Central! I had forgotten all about this site! So I see we can post pics so here it is, what do we do when we get something like this pop up and is there somewhere we can report it to? Oh and by the way, I immediately went to the playstore and downloaded and antivirus app from there and did a scan, the only thing that came up was an app called "Rotten Friends", it's a Halloween/Gore photo editing app that I downloaded b4 Halloween! Nothing about any virus or Tapsnake or such! THANK GOD!View attachment 93675

Mine just did this, so it isn't a virus?

 

[ffejjj]

This happen to me before. Turned out that it was a wallpaper I loaded. It has permission to add sous and what not to my phone. Once I tracked it down and removed the wallpaper all the pop ups stopped

My Evo lte Filling the shoes of my HTC One

 

[GSDer]

Mine just did this, so it isn't a virus?

It looks like adware designed to get you to install their crapware.

Are you also using Opera by any chance?

If you're really worried you could install one of the anti-virus applications listed earlier in the thread, or any of the other reputable ones from the Google Play Store.

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk

 

[Doge Crew]

I went to go "download" Bike Race "cheats" (You can't blame me. It's frustrating.) for my Samsung and I got this screen.


I just swiped it away from my multitask bar...:-[ (Note that I'm using BlueStacks.)

 

[vivagal]

when i'm browsing its shows my fone has 13 virus also i'm getting "Android Warning" virus detected, then a button to remove virus, then under that it says "google play". I down loaded 360 security . i used it to scan my fone after scanning its says "NO VIRUS FOUND"but im still getting the same message from Andriod over and over again...., how do I get rid of this virus ???????????

 

[goodgrl]

when i'm browsing its shows my fone has 13 virus also i'm getting "Android Warning" virus detected, then a button to remove virus, then under that it says "google play". I down loaded 360 security . i used it to scan my fone after scanning its says "NO VIRUS FOUND"but im still getting the same message from Andriod over and over again...., how do I get rid of this virus ???????????

I'm having the same issue. Scans of my phone detect no problem and I've only downloaded from the Google store so not sure what app could be causing this. Did u get a solution?

 

[nubby_bubbs]

Same thing happened to me on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, so does that mean it was fake?:-!:-!