App virus that causes pop ups exiting sleep mode

[Magizzle]

Hello,

I've just purchased an S8 maybe a month ago. My girlfriend, in her infinite wisdom, tried to download a cracked spotify .apk from... somewhere.

Regardless anytime I unlock my phone, Google chrome opens and a popup is displayed. It's easily closed and just a hindrance, however who knows what else it's sending. I will go through the process of password resets after I remove this bugger.

It's safe to assume it's not just sitting here displaying pop ups most likely as I've run Malwarebytes and receive the message that a virus has been detected. Upon trying to remove it I discovered that I couldn't as it has admin privileges.

Is there a way to address this without a factory reset? I've tried restoring from a backup point to no avail. I haven't restarted it yet, if that effects anything... send help. Man down. Haha

Thank you kindly and I apologize if this has been posted before - I truly searched and found nothing. Maybe idk how to search.

 

[SpookDroid]

You can try doing so by booting up in Safe Mode (that 'kills' any 3rd party apps from loading up) but not sure if the AV app can run in that mode or not. But it's worth a shot.

 

[Gayle Lynn]

Nuke app data and cache, wipe cache partition, maybe package disabled.
Maybe Skype bootleg listens in and shows your chats to her or remote.
Change the locks!

Restarting, powering off, #1 .

Chrome security post build 64 is somewhat better.

Was MalwareBytes installed before this.

 

[Magizzle]

Unfortunately not =/ the only way I can figure out how to be sure it's gone is to just factory reset. Very much appreciate your help though!