Samsung Galaxy S3 - Play Store opens on its own when unlocking phone?

[whatiswithmyphone]

I have noticed that just a few days ago, I would unlock my phone to the home screen, and as soon as I do, a caption at the bottom of my screen says "TOP FREE GAME", a bit.ly link opens, then some ad tracking website, and finally I end up at the play store to download some game app.

How can I stop this from happening?
Is it possibly a virus? I don't remember downloading any strange apps in the last few days or tapping on any unfamiliar links. I never open ads either.

Any help or anyone with the same problem would be appreciated.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! It's probably adware related to some other app you installed. It can be difficult to pinpoint the responsible app, although the first thing to do is to look at the game's app page on Google Play to see what other apps that developer makes--and see if you installed any of them. If you did, uninstall it, and the adware will probably disappear.

Otherwise, you may just have to uninstall apps one by one (starting with your most recently installed apps) until the adware disappears.