My phone keeps opening spam pages on a regular basis. How to get rid of it?

[Android Central Question]

At first, the problem seemed to be some sort of adware, so I tried using Malwarebytes and Avast, but they both say that my phone is fine.

I have tried to clear all the memory from Chrome, even disable it, but the links simply open in another browser.

Also, I could not find any shady unnamed app installed in the phone.

What else is there to do, besides a factory reset?

 

[hallux]

Have you installed any new apps recently (other than MalwareBytes or Avast)? Have you updated any apps recently? Does it happen in safe mode?

If you need additional help or have more questions or details to share, please join the site so you can reply in this thread. See this link for instructions on how to join Android Central.

 

[BelugaBoy]

The apps on my phone update regularly, so it's hard to check on that, but all of them are verified by Play Protect. I did not notice this strange behavior after installing one of the new apps, so I doubt it's from one of them (they all have lots of downloads on Play Store and no complaints about this).

 

[hallux]

Welcome to AC.

It's not unheard of for a previously good app with good ratings and reviews to suddenly end up with ads. This happened with ES File Explorer a few years ago, when it was swallowed up by (I believe) Cheetah Mobile and the subsequent update suddenly brought lockscreen ads and other undesirable stuff (which prompted me to remove it from my devices). Until that update ES was a decent app and would have had good reviews.

 

[BelugaBoy]

Thank you for your help! I went through all the apps and uninstalled the ones I was not using anymore. Afterwards, I checked the Google Play reviews for these apps and one of them only had poor recent reviews, because of the same problem that I had. Thanks a lot for the tip!

 

[hallux]

Just for curiosity, and to help others, do you mind sharing what app it was?

Glad to hear you found it.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! See this guide as well: Full screen ads. How to find the culprit. - Android Forums at AndroidCentral.com

 

[BelugaBoy]

It was actually a WhatsApp sticker pack called "Dump Trump for WhatsApp"