Antivirus says Trojan found: Preferred Activity Setter 1.2. How do I get rid of them?

[AC Question]

antivirus says Trojan found: Preferred Activity Setter 1.2

Galaxy S4 mini, Vipre,
antivirus just told me the "following item is likely to be infected. We recommend you remove it: Preferred Activity Setter 1.2"
When I tried to uninstall, it would not let me. How do I remove this?
Why is it showing up as a Trojan.AndroidOS.Generic. A? It says it is under system tools and set preferred apps. When I try to uninstall, it says uninstall not successful.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Re: antivirus says Trojan found: Preferred Activity Setter 1.2

Welcome to the forums. I found a couple hits that connect that to a flash player app. Did you try to install something like this?

 

[cbd86]

Re: antivirus says Trojan found: Preferred Activity Setter 1.2

No, haven't installed anything lately.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Re: antivirus says Trojan found: Preferred Activity Setter 1.2

No, haven't installed anything lately.

Have you reset the device?

 

[cbd86]

tried resetting and got the same message. It won't uninstall and I don't know what else to do. Ideas are welcome!

 

[Golfdriver97]

tried resetting and got the same message. It won't uninstall and I don't know what else to do. Ideas are welcome!

I would try taking it to best buy that has a Samsung section. Maybe they can reflash your ROM?

From an AOSP M8

 

[Pamela Abbate]

It's a pre-installed app from Samsung. They pre-install nearly 400 apps on the phone before you purchase it. I'm trying to figure out how to disable it as well. I cannot find it to disable it.

 

[jakub brekk]

holy crap... they foist off so much adware on us as we browse the web. now we get our devices pre-infected by manufacturer..

 

[grumpycrab]

it's not just samsung, its all sprint android phones. and its actually 2 viruses. Android_omri and Android_ctl. omri can do anything from steal pics, contacts, fake legitimate banking apps, track keystrokes, send sms to premium numbers without you consent or knowledge and a host of other things. it's preinstalled by the service provider and cannot be uninstalled or disabled. the only way to remove it is to force the service provider to do so, which will probably take a court ruling.

the following is by AVGthreatlabs:
Web Threats ›
Android/omri_malware

Android/omri_malware is a malicious android app used to interrupt the normal operations of your android device and gain access to the private information you have stored in it. These kinds of threats are called Malware. Some examples of what they do are:
- Steal your contacts and pictures
- Track your location
- Access your text messages
- Log your keystrokes and passwords
- Send SMS messages to premium numbers without your knowledge that can result in a very high phone bill
- Fake legitimate banking applications and steal your personal banking information when you log inAndroid/omri_malware is currently ranked 145 in the world for mobile, online and PC malware, affecting 1,000,000 users.

 

[Kurt Blanchard]

Re: antivirus says Trojan found: Preferred Activity Setter 1.2

They recommend you remove it, then leave you swingin' in the breeze. Couldn't find any way to uninstall it, but I did manage to disable it with Clean Master, at Google shops, it's a free download. In the app menu there's a system app menu, if you scroll way down you'll find Preferred Activity Setter and it'll give you the option to disable it. I disabled a few other things lurking in there as well

 

[Airaeld13]

I have a different type of virus. Syscope is what it is along with a lost of others. How do I fix? I think I disabled them all bUT is there anyway to in on stall? ?