[AC Question]

I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 (not rooted, as far as I know; though I'm guessing that's something you can't do by accident), and was browsing the Internet on it earlier today when I accidentally clicked a weird ad (the website it took me too was newest-apps . com).

I didn't notice right away, because the tab opened behind my others, and I didn't download any apps off the website itself. I know with PCs and laptops it's possible to pick up viruses and malware and the like just from going to a website, but is it the same for smartphones? I performed a virus/malware scan (AVG AntiVirus) and it detected no threats, but just to be safe, I did a factory reset (my data was not encrypted).

Is a factory reset enough to remove malware from an Android device? If AVG detected no threats, was the factory reset even necessary? I'm honestly pretty clueless about phones, and try to stick to the Play Store apps 100% of the time, so I have no idea what to do.

Thank you so much for any help! I've been very paranoid about malware and the like after falling for one of those support scams last summer, so I'm pretty nervous about this.

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! I don't think any malware could have been installed. What you saw was only a pop-under browser tab, which can be sneaky, but as long as you close it without tapping any other link there, then you're ok.

Factory reset should get rid of any malware. It's a good idea beforehand to go to Settings>Backup & Reset, and uncheck Restore Automatically, just to be safe.