Possible Virus - Play Store opens randomly to specific games/apps

[Glenn3672]

Ok everyone I found it............"Group Play" it's a Android app when you Disable it the only thing i noticed different other than the ("play store" ghost in the machine) it put a standard background!

 

[GalaxyOnyxWitch]

I have been doing a LOT of reading on this phenomenon on various forums. On one they say the culprit is Music Paradise. However on my Note 4 it isn't. I finally got sick of wondering and figured I would take it into my own hands. I read about adblockplus.org. It isn't downloadable on google play as it's primary function is to block intrusive ads like the ones that take over your phone (ie: surfing a web page from a link and getting pushed right into google play for some stupid game I don't want). They do let some ads through so it doesn't kill everything unless you select it to and you don't have to use Root.

I think that until google gets control of these intrusive ads that a lot more people will be going this route. If they change their policy and or acknowledge it, I will consider allowing ads again.

hope this helps. So far I have tested it (only 2 days now) and when I click on a link in tinfoil for facebook, no ad is commandeering my phone and pushing me to play store. So far so good.

 

[Alexp1971]

Hate to be the one that says. .
I don't have either of these suspect apps and I have the same problem that started a few weeks ago.. very annoying and don't know what to do !!!

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[DrBob Weston]

Every morn my phone wakes up on the play store site. I have to fumble thru closing it to get to my alarm shut off, hoping I don't hit a wrong button and add insult to injury. It happens throughout the day as well. I also get an official looking adroid battery upgrade notice saying I have to upgrade the battery module but its not from Motorola or android or verizon. I've got a Droid Max. I've also recently been told my yahoo and gmail accounts sent out obvious spam. I do not think a virus scan will help because its most likely not a virus but a carefully hidden app that's working as the jerk developer designed... Redirecting and hijacking my phone. I've removed any downloads I could find thinking that would solve it but the problem is, if the jerk was smart enough to create this thing in the first place, he/she is smart enough not to have it show up on the list where my stock app manager could remove it. I will try to remove all non stock apps and see if that helps but I'm guessing it will be necessary for a factory reset. Even then I'm worried that the crafty culprit will find a way to be written into the factory reset app group and the hassle will continue until I'm forced to buy a new phone. Not being a conspiracy guy... Well maybe a little... Could this be a ploy from my carrier to build in controlled obsolescence??? Stranger things have happened. Look at our political world and car manufacturers. Back to the issue. Do not let your 12 yr old touch your phone. Ever. EVER! Problem solved. Now for a solution?

 

[heres2life]

I get this problem sometimes twice in less than a minute while using Facebook. The link shows this: service.youappi.com/app/directlink?accesstoken=3cd93243-0774-4b66-a4c4-3d16ef2dd9fa&appid=57969&usertoken=user_mb9_android_31751&campaignpartnerid=993&publishertoken=232&subid=1422453343mb84445793487

 

[Hadi Fotovati]

The culprit is AdBlock. uninstall it and you're good to go!

 

[Carpe Diem4]

Just go to Play Store-->My Apps and remove all the recently downloaded and updated apps ... It will also be a good idea if u uninstall all those apps which u can reinstall again without losing any data.. I had this issue and doing above solved it... Hope this helps

 

[margo63]

I don't have music paradise but it seems like mine started doing it after an update on my phone was installed. Does that even make sense?

 

[margo63]

I am fairly sure I have figured out what was going on with my phone. I have searched through and studied my apps on the app store that I have downloaded sine I was fairly convinced it was an app that was causing the pop up ads. I couldn't find anything odd. Then today I noticed an app icon on my phone to a music download app, I thought I had deleted any music download apps that I had since those are kind of wiggy anyway. After searching my list of apps in the app store I still didn't see it. I had to go into my settings and review my apps there. Sure enough the app was there. My suggestion is if you have the app MUSIC PARADISE. Delete it. If you are having this issue be sure to check your apps in the settings instead of just in the app store because it is hiding and hijacking your phone. So far so good I haven't had the ad pop up since I deleted this app. Hope this helps and I hope mine is really fixed. This kind of stuff makes me so ill! I have spent so much time trying to figure out the problem so I didn't have to reset everything on my phone. Good luck!

 

[Marsha Joy]

I also had music download paradise I get the same pop up everytime it's the clash of clans game hopeful that this will make it go away! I have the s5

 

[tryingtokeepup]

I suspect there are a few bad apps out there. I was having same problem--pop ups were so aggressive I literally couldn't use the phone, and the culprit turned out to be "stop watch timer" by alexcottonuy7. once I uninstalled it, the problem was solved. and neither Norton, Trend Micro or Air Push detector detected it. I found it by going to "notifications" and then going to one of the suspect notifications, and seeing which app sent it. good luck

 

[eBrigand]

Admob is one of the subsidiaries of a company named Admanic. This isn't a virus per se, Admanic pays app developers and websites to add the pop up code. One of Admanic's customers is Google Play. Not sure how to disable the pop ups, but this isn't a virus. Let Google and the developers of the guilty apps you don't appreciate the pop ups.

 

[pyrogt]

Alot of apps cause random spam. I had one app that turned my screen red, couldn't figure it out till I started uninstalling apps.

 

[Lacey Stratton]

i have same problem when i open up my messages and my call log/contacts.. it brings me to either google play app store to download a game or brings me to internet to some stupid add. i DO NOT have a rooted phone. my phone is still completely original from when i first bought it. And i do NOT have the unknown sources checked, so i have NOT downloaded any 3rd party apps, i havent done anything new to my phone. havent downloaded any new apps. Only thing i did was i received an update about 2 weeks ago from ATT saying its time for a new software update. and it seems like ever since i updated is when this happened. but if nobody else updated their phone and they still have same issues then thats not the problem

yes then that IS THE PROBLEM. MOST DEFINATELY. BC ATT SENT ME A REQUEST SAYING ITS TIME FOR ATT SOFTWARE UPDATE. AND HAD THE PROBLEM EVER SINCE I DOWNLOADED THE UPDATE. SO HOW DO I GO ABOUT CONTACTING ATT OR WHOEVER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SOFTWARE UPDATES

 

[dpask]

Music Download Paradise Pro, is my most recent and only download in awhile ?

 

[tee52]

The same thing is happening to my Note 3. If I get a notification of any kind it sends me to the play store and some stupid game app, or if I go to my message app, which is the stock message app, then it directs me to the play store. I do not have adblock nor the music paradise apps and I have not downloaded any new apps in the past 2 weeks that this has been happening. I also do not use the Chrome browser.I looked thru my apps and there are no rogue apps there. I scanned and it shows no virus. The only websites I have gone to that I do not normally go to on my phone was ebay and amazon. I have cleared the cache, cookies and history but stills sends me to the playstore. Can anyone help?

 

[Serth D]

Have you had any luck fixing this? I have the same problem on Galaxy S3

I have had this problem before, after installing an pirated app I would get random redirects to play store for game of war and more... I uninstalled the pirated app and I never experienced the problem again.

 

[anon(5719825)]

After upgrading my Note 4 to Lollipop, I would get an ad that would display in my notifications pane. I couldn't figure out what app was causing it but the ad was sponsored by State Farm.

I installed Adaway and haven't had the problem since.

 

[tee52]

I have had this problem before, after installing an pirated app I would get random redirects to play store for game of war and more... I uninstalled the pirated app and I never experienced the problem again.

I do not have a pirated app on my phone. Any apps I have downloaded came from the Play Store. I have not downloaded any new apps in awhile and this redirect started about 2 weeks ago.

 

[Aidan McHale]

this post that is originally about Google Play opening up to some sort of that by the original writer here is absolutely correct the virus came from linkedIn because I just got and invite over the weekend from LinkedIn and when I clicked it I didn't know who it was I just backed out of it then suddenly I get all these apps showing up in Google Play trying to force you to download them if you touch it by accident. everything else doesn't even apply