Galaxy S10 may have a virus.

[Phuztone]

My Galaxy S10 may have a virus that causes the phone to start playing some chime type music at around 5 am. When I stop it, it starts again after about 20 min. This continues until I turn the phone off. I tried to open my Bitdefender app but I got a message that it could not open the link to its page. I downloaded Kaspersky Security app & installed it. When I tried to activate it, I was told that it couldn't open it. So I'm fairly sure that I have a virus of some kind.

I don't like turning my phone off at nite, so I would like to know if anyone knows how I can get rid of this virus without doing a factory reset. I have lots of pics, music, apps, & contacts I don't want to loose.

If anyone knows of any app that may be causing this, I would really appreciate knowing about them.

Thanks!

 

[mustang7757]

Hi welcome to AC!

Try Nice catch in galaxy store and Toast notification in play store and let them collect data to see which app is responsible, can try safe mode also .

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! It's highly unlikely to be a virus. I'm not sure what the goal of a malware creator would be by creating a mysterious alarm that the user notices -- either it's the world's worst malware creator or they would just want to mess around with the user.

Did you install Bitdefender and Kaspersky from the Play Store, or from some other source? It doesn't quite make sense to get an error saying that it couldn't open the link to its page, since those are apps, not browsers.

Do the chimes still happen in Safe Mode? https://www.t-mobile.com/support/devices/android/samsung-galaxy-s10/safe-mode-samsung-galaxy-s10

Do you by any chance have Bixby Alarm turned on? www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00083202/#:~:text=Press and hold the Bixby,can view or edit it.

 

[Phuztone]

Is Nice Catch in the store something that you need to ask someone to use it?? What is Toast???

 

[mustang7757]

Is Nice Catch in the store something that you need to ask someone to use it?? What is Toast???

https://apps.samsung.com/appquery/appDetail.as?appId=com.samsung.android.app.goodcatch

 

[mustang7757]

Toast source


https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...ails?id=pl.revanmj.toastsource&token=91Z0VFoq

 

[Phuztone]

Thanks Mr. Diddy!
Well, this malware plays an alarm way too early for me, & blocks apps from connecting to their site. So I would say it is quite annoying for me!!!!
No I don't have Bixby's Alarm on. I don't know how to access Bixby!!
I downloaded both of them from the Play Store.
I plan to put it in Safe Mode tonight to see if it still plays the music, & I will let you know.

Thanks for the suggestions!!!

 

[Laura Knotek]

Do you have NFC enabled? Is your phone near something magnetic such as a credit card or driver licence?

 

[Phuztone]

Mr. Diddy,
I took your suggestion & put my phone in safe mode last nite. The annoying music never started. What does this mean? Does it mean that the tune was coming from an app, since most of the apps were turned off?

 

[Phuztone]

No.

 

[B. Diddy]

Mr. Diddy,
I took your suggestion & put my phone in safe mode last nite. The annoying music never started. What does this mean? Does it mean that the tune was coming from an app, since most of the apps were turned off?

Ok, that's good to hear. It means that some app you installed is responsible, rather than the system. Unfortunately, Safe Mode can't narrow things down further -- you have to uninstall apps one by one until the problem goes away.

Do you have any 3rd party file managers, galleries, or battery saver/"RAM booster" apps installed? These are common categories of apps that may have sneaky little "features" added on (that are usually associated with ads in some way).

 

[Phuztone]

I do have some of these but most of them have been installed several years ago. But I will find them & uninstall them. And maybe reinstall them later.

 

[B. Diddy]

Yeah, definitely get rid of them and see what happens. They might have been installed a few years ago, but they are likely being updated regularly, and who knows what kind of additional adware junk one of those updates might have included?

 

[kate bonner]

Recently, about two dozen apps in the Google Play store were found to contain malware that steals the SMS messages, contact lists, and device info, and similar reports surface occasionally. So the bottom line is yes: The Galaxy S10 can get infected with viruses and other malware, though the odds are quite low.