Do I have a virus on my Galaxy S4 mini?

[AC Question]

Do I have a virus on Galaxy S4 mini

a virus warning came up on my Galaxy S4 saying I had a virus and asked for my phone number. It then offered to download an anti virus app. Is it a scam or sales pitch?

 

[Crashdamage]

Re: Do I have a virus on Galaxy S4 mini

Its a scam AND a sales pitch. Whatever you do, DON'T do what it's asking you to do. Something you've installed is causing this.

Uninstall ALL task killers, RAM memory optimizers/boosters, battery savers/repairers, cache cleaners, antivirus, etc etc. None of that stuff is necessary. Such apps are actually counterproductive and some are just plain evil. Many of them are guilty of pop-up nags, scary sounding false alerts and far worse. They actually waste power and disrupt critical system processes and degrade performance.

Uninstall this way to minimize the chances of leftover files:
Settings > Apps > All > Select app > Force stop > Clear cache > Clear data > Uninstall
When done, reboot the phone.

Uninstalling crapware may solve the pop-up problem. If not, try clearing app caches the correct way:
Settings > Storage > tap Cached data > OK. Reboot the phone.
Note: While clearing caches doesn't really hurt anything, cache files are there for a purpose and should be left alone unless you have a problem that might be related to them.

If you still have pop-ups try installing Malwarebytes. It is not an antivirus progam in the usual sense.
https://forums.androidcentral.com/e.../store/apps/d...imalware&hl=en&token=eOXSDMv9

If you STILL have pop-ups, the next step is clearing the cache partition. The exact procedure for that varies by device.
Next step after clearing the cache partition would be a factory reset.