Why is my phone is downloading Chinese apps without my consent?

[hleplme]

My Samsung phone keeps downloading Chinese apps without asking me, even though I told it not to download apps from unknown sources. I'm pretty sure Malwarebytes was deleted from my phone without my consent, although it detected something called "unlock" that I couldn't remove. AVG Anti Virus detects no threats. Resetting the phone did nothing. What's going on, and how do I fix it? Should I just trash this phone?

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Moved from the Android Apps forum to the General Help forum, since the former is intended for developers to promote their apps.

It sounds like you have some significant malware on the phone. If you already did a factory reset and this is still happening, then that malware might be installed to the root. To get rid of it, you'd have to reinstall the firmware. Which Samsung phone do you have?

You could also try booting into Safe Mode and see if the problems persist. If they do, that's further proof that the malware is installed to the system root.

Another possibility is that you have a Chinese knockoff/clone of a Samsung phone. What's the exact model number listed in Settings>About Phone​?

 

[hleplme]

Samsung Galaxy S5 SM-G900F

 

[SexyLi]

There may be a software that automatically download those apps. You can see which software uses the most internet traffic, then uninstall the software to try it.

 

[WowSpring6]

Maybe some apps has carried the unknow virus.

 

[B. Diddy]

Install CPU-Z and see what kind of CPU is running. It should be a Samsung Exynos or Qualcomm Snapdragon. If it's anything else (like MediaTek), then it's a knockoff.

 

[hleplme]

How do I check which software is doing what?

 

[Atifbaig786]

Okay.That is The definite sign of The Virus.
I Should Recommend Flashing a Full Firmware.
Nothing Else would work Trust me.

 

[GilmourD]

Can you post a screen capture of the apps it's installing? Are they Samsung apps or random apps?

 

[B. Diddy]

How do I check which software is doing what?

Go to Settings>Data Usage, which should show you a list of apps that are using data, in order of data consumption. But I'm not sure this will help you, since it's typically the Download Manager that handles downloads and installation.

I would still recommend installing CPU-Z so that you can tell if the phone is a knockoff or not.

 

[bigzdog]

Could someone have your Google account and be installing apps from the Play store through a web browser? It would explain how the apps keep installing even after a factory reset.

Have you changed your Google password? If not, I would start there to be safe.