Spam in Notification Bar

[DocFreud]

I received the updated GB on Tuesday night and ever since then, I am seeing strange spam show up in the Notification Bar. The notification icon is a white star with a colored dot in the middle.

The latest message is, "Read Your Friends SMS's! Find Out How Now!"

Any idea what's generating these messages and how to permanently stop them?

Thank you!

 

[natehoy]

EDIT: Read the post from project_in_progress further down - he's got a better solution than I have...

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I'm not familiar with that icon, but it's probably adware from some app or other. It's possible that Gingerbread added the capability for that app to send notifications, where it was unable to before.

Try going back to all the free apps you've got installed and reading the reviews on them one at a time. If you start seeing trends like "app spams me!", try uninstalling it and see if the stuff goes away.

Worst case, and this is a pain, I know - uninstall all apps and do a factory reset, then install the apps in small groups until you start seeing the ads again. That will help narrow down what app's adware is causing this.

 

[hannsoft]

I received the updated GB on Tuesday night and ever since then, I am seeing strange spam show up in the Notification Bar. The notification icon is a white star with a colored dot in the middle.

The latest message is, "Read Your Friends SMS's! Find Out How Now!"

Any idea what's generating these messages and how to permanently stop them?

Thank you!

I actually had something like that the other day, too! Can't recall the message .. but there wasn't a TRACE of it anywhere after it disappeared. Nothing in Notifications, nothing in SMS, no history trace anywhere ...

 

[project.in.process]

no wipe/reset needed--you have an app with Air Push enabled.


download this app, "air push detector" and open it. run it & it will show you what app is giving you those notification bar spam messages. it doesn't BLOCK those messages, it just shows you what apps are giving you those Ads. then go into your menu>settings>applications> & uninstall any of the apps which were listed.

downloaded, ran it--and found 3 apps on my phone with these permissions/abilities. removed them, haven't seen the ads since.
...and there was much rejoicing.

 

[natehoy]

no wipe/reset needed--you have an app with Air Push enabled.


download this app, "air push detector" and open it. run it & it will show you what app is giving you those notification bar spam messages. it doesn't BLOCK those messages, it just shows you what apps are giving you those Ads. then go into your menu>settings>applications> & uninstall any of the apps which were listed.

downloaded, ran it--and found 3 apps on my phone with these permissions/abilities. removed them, haven't seen the ads since.
...and there was much rejoicing.

Excellent. I didn't know that the star with the red dot was Air Push. I've managed to avoid that little bugger so far, thank goodness.

Thanks for a far better solution than I had.

 

[project.in.process]

Excellent. I didn't know that the star with the red dot was Air Push. I've managed to avoid that little bugger so far, thank goodness.

Thanks for a far better solution than I had.

np after about a week of random ads i did some research and read up on Air-Push & figured there must be something to sniff the apps out which enable/package it. then found the app & have ran it weekly just to be safe.

 

[hannsoft]

no wipe/reset needed--you have an app with Air Push enabled.


download this app, "air push detector" and open it. run it & it will show you what app is giving you those notification bar spam messages. it doesn't BLOCK those messages, it just shows you what apps are giving you those Ads. then go into your menu>settings>applications> & uninstall any of the apps which were listed.

downloaded, ran it--and found 3 apps on my phone with these permissions/abilities. removed them, haven't seen the ads since.
...and there was much rejoicing.

WOW - thanks so much for that! Ran it and damn, I am bummed to see what it was!

 

[DocFreud]

Thank you, project.in.process!

I downloaded and ran AirPush Detector. But, no apps using AirPush were detected. I'll keep on eye on it for the next couple of days to see if any new spam appears.

Is there another thread that lists apps removed because of AirPush? If not, we should start one. I don't want to bash the developers that use it. Instead, just create a simple list of app names so that users can decide for themselve if they want to download the app or keep one that has already been installed.

 

[project.in.process]

Thank you, project.in.process!

I downloaded and ran AirPush Detector. But, no apps using AirPush were detected. I'll keep on eye on it for the next couple of days to see if any new spam appears.

Is there another thread that lists apps removed because of AirPush? If not, we should start one. I don't want to bash the developers that use it. Instead, just create a simple list of app names so that users can decide for themselve if they want to download the app or keep one that has already been installed.

also, check this (the option was probably enabled by default after the update)

open the android market--Settings --> Google AdMob Ads Preferences --> Uncheck 'Receive interest-based ads' option.
that's a contributing factor of the spam, but AirPush is really the culprit here. AdMobAds would more or less accrue the information needed for those (more tailored) ads to be generated.

(http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Android+Market/thread?tid=52085e86b6970bad&hl=en) provides a pretty lengthy discussion of this problem as well as listing many apps that were found to include AirPush (wheel of fortune, zoosk, gang wars, funny face, minesweeper, bright torch, voice changer, age your face,US Airways Dividend Miles, Sketch Me, Moon Phases etc)

 

[DocFreud]

I looked at my Market app settings and the AdMob setting was already unchecked. Thanks!

 

[dachillfx]

What issues would occur if u decided to keep said apps that sure push add to your notifications? Well besides them showing up. Like, will the app itself harm the device? I notice the advice to uninstall. Figure if u downloaded the app either you wanted it or needed it. So y uninstall unless it will bring harm to the device. Will harm come to device if so I've got some deleting to do.

 

[project.in.process]

if you can live with the ads, then right on.
or, if you want to keep the apps--(and are rooted), you could block the air-push permission with LBE Security Guard.

 

[DocFreud]

Another day, another AirPush ad waiting for me when I woke up.

I had moved a few dozen apps to the SD card. Since I'm not sure if AirPush Detector can read those apps, I moved them back to the phone. AirPush is still not being detected on my phone.

Now I'm wondering if I deleted the offending app prior to installing AirPush Detector, but AirPush has retained my phone's information so it can continue to spam it.

 

[petestl]

I had downloaded tubemate, one of the app picks here and was getting this type of spam too - couldn't figure it out either.
Look in your status bar after it pops up, and it (the offending app) should show up in your recently used Apps icons. That's how I figured mine out.

Good luck
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

 

[DocFreud]

I'm happy to report that I have gone three days without seeing any AirPush spam. It's strange that AirPush Detector didn't pick up any AirPush enabled apps, yet I was still getting them. But, I'm glad they have stopped.

 

[gink]

Ugh...thanks for this information. The spam was driving me crazy! Hopefully removing the suspected app will remedy the problem!

 

[FrankXS]

Just a note... as mentioned in the Market description of Airpush Detector, the Market app "Addons Detector" is much more comprehensive. And, I've noticed, it seems the database is more accurate. Or... could be false positive. How would I know? But, I'm not getting ad notifications.

Anyway... also try Addon Detector. Will do notification bar ads but also other advertising techniques.

-Frank