New apps appearing on phone

[Android Central Question]

I recently noticed that random apps started appearing on my Galaxy S6 without me installing them. The app include Solitare, Candy Crush, Toon Blast, Yahoo Mail, slot machine games, etc. I deleted them and have been running scans on with Malwarebytes and McAfee total protection which say everything is safe. It was time for a new phone so today I got a Galaxy S10 and used Samsung Smart Switch to transfer messages, contacts, etc. I specifically chose not to transfer any apps and decided to manually install apps from the play store. After setup of my new phone, I noticed that the same apps were appearing. I did a factory reset of my new phone and the apps still automatically downloaded. Is this something I should be concerned about? And is there a way to keep this from happening?

 

[mustang7757]

Which carrier? Att?Its possible they came with the phone , and everytime you factory reset it will show them again.


I'll leave a Link to register so you can communicate here as a guest account you can only post questions but can't reply.https://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=409154

 

[miller4281]

Verizon. These apps just started appearing on my old phone this week. Until then, I hadn't noticed any random apps installing without my knowledge.

 

[tube517]

You probably downloaded an app with adware that installs other apps. Pretty common in games. Antivirus apps are useless against these.

Uninstall the last few games you installed recently.

My wife plays a word scramble game and 3 or 4 apps (other games) were installed without her knowledge. I had to delete those and clear her cache and cache partition.

 

[miller4281]

You probably downloaded an app with adware that installs other apps. Pretty common in games. Antivirus apps are useless against these.

Uninstall the last few games you installed recently.

My wife plays a word scramble game and 3 or 4 apps (other games) were installed without her knowledge. I had to delete those and clear her cache and cache partition.

Thanks! Would the adware have been transferred to my new phone when I used Samsung Smart Switch to transfer data?

 

[mustang7757]

Verizon. These apps just started appearing on my old phone this week. Until then, I hadn't noticed any random apps installing without my knowledge.

Hi welcome!
So they on your s6 and now your s10?

 

[miller4281]

Hi welcome!
So they on your s6 and now your s10?

Thanks! Yes. They were on the s6 and I deleted them. When I transferred data to the s10 the apps appeared on the s10.

 

[mustang7757]

Thanks! Yes. They were on the s6 and I deleted them. When I transferred data to the s10 the apps appeared on the s10.

Possible the back up you made got the apps before you deleted them and transfer the s10

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Are the actual games installing, or is it just an app that links you to the Play Store page for those games? Or does the app install the games for you?