[Schmendrake]

Despite using several anti-virus apps, and when Note 3 is booted in Safe Mode, numerous settings and apps all spontaneously launch at once. As soon as I TRY to close them, they reopen, automatically changing settings, and preventing me fom standard use of the phone. My phone is possessed!?

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! I moved this from the S3 forum to the Note 3 forum.

The touchscreen digitizer might be faulty. Or it could be related to a screen protector, if you have one on.

[Rukbat]

Or, if it's really a virus, the Note 3 is really easy to flash a ROM to (and that would eliminate any virus [writing a virus that would reside in the download partition and affect the Android partition is possible, but anyone who could do that wouldn't - there are too many other, and legitimate, things to do]). Just read [Samsung] How to flash Stock ROM via ODIN. (And have something to do once you start Odin flashing the phone - it's about 15 minutes of the most boring time of your life.)

It will wipe the phone, so if everything isn't already backed up (it should be - always), do it first. (See Backing up an Android Device.) You'll have to set the phone up from jump - enter all your account information, install all the apps you've installed, everything. But any malware will be gone. (If the ROM isn't available on Sammobile, try XDA - most of the Note 3 ROMs have been posted there at one time or another - and you might even prefer one of the custom ROMs.)