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Samsung Galaxy SIII virus warning

Venom

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My GS3 periodically displays a message saying "you may have a virus" or "you may have 2 viruses". That perplexed me a bit. It then asks me to scan or cancel. If I try to scan, it takes me to the internet to "androidantivirus.com" or something of the sort (half of the URL was cut off when browsing) and tells me to download the product. I Googled "androidantivirus" and no such program exists, apparently. I'm still cautious about it.

Whether the message is indicating malware or it's trying to lead me to one, it's a cause for concern. May have been from one of my apps I downloaded today.

Anyone experience a similar issue or have any suggestions....
 
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Go to googles android play (app market) and find a good antivirus there. Then you can be resonably sure that you are getting an actual product. I've got Avast! mobile security myself on my droid pad. So far no problems and it got a firewall as well.

Be aware that the firewall will require you to log on as root in order to enable it.
 
IIIClovisIII said:
My GS3 periodically displays a message saying "you may have a virus" or "you may have 2 viruses". That perplexed me a bit. It then asks me to scan or cancel. If I try to scan, it takes me to the internet to "androidantivirus.com" or something of the sort (half of the URL was cut off when browsing) and tells me to download the product. I Googled "androidantivirus" and no such program exists, apparently. I'm still cautious about it.

Whether the message is indicating malware or it's trying to lead me to one, it's a cause for concern. May have been from one of my apps I downloaded today.

Anyone experience a similar issue or have any suggestions....
Click to expand...

I had an almost identical experience on my SIII. I downloaded a silly app called face mood (from the official store - it had reasonable ratings) and straight away the message 'you may have a virus' appeared. I switched the phone off without opening the app. I deleted it and scanned with Kaspersky which I had already installed. It didn't find anything and I couldn't find anyone else on the net with a similar experience for that app so I left it at that.

May be the phone is being over cautious or may be it is actually a virus - hard to know but I am not aware of any mal effects from the experience in the month since it happened.
 
IIIClovisIII said:
My GS3 periodically displays a message saying "you may have a virus" or "you may have 2 viruses". That perplexed me a bit. It then asks me to scan or cancel. If I try to scan, it takes me to the internet to "androidantivirus.com" or something of the sort (half of the URL was cut off when browsing) and tells me to download the product. I Googled "androidantivirus" and no such program exists, apparently. I'm still cautious about it.

Whether the message is indicating malware or it's trying to lead me to one, it's a cause for concern. May have been from one of my apps I downloaded today.

Anyone experience a similar issue or have any suggestions....
Click to expand...

Sounds like scareware to me.
 
SatansMaleVoiceChoir said:
Scareware?! What the hell is THAT?
Click to expand...

The software distribution version of memespread. See also "fiscal cliff".

Same technique.
Same motivating factor.
Same results: money from you going into promoters' pockets in exchange for making the fear go away...for now.
 
WildCat said:
A popup that mimics your OS doing a virus scan or some such warning which says you have a virus when you really don't, the goal is to get you to purchase a worthless anti-virus app.
Click to expand...
The malware that disabled my PC did something like this. It also mucked with the keyboard.

I solved the problem by getting a Mac. ;)
 
The_Fire said:
Go to googles android play (app market) and find a good antivirus there. Then you can be resonably sure that you are getting an actual product. I've got Avast! mobile security myself on my droid pad. So far no problems and it got a firewall as well.

Be aware that the firewall will require you to log on as root in order to enable it.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, some of the apps from Google Play actually do the "alerts" type spam advertising, including asinine scary warnings abour virus infections, or "your smartphone is running slowly!" type fraud. He might not even have a virus but rather just an irritating app.

Un-install apps in reverse order of what you installed the past few weeks until it is gone.

Better yet, look up each app on the Internet to see if people are discussing it as installing scary "alerts" of the type you're seeing. That's even faster to narrow it down.
 
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IIIClovisIII said:
If I try to scan, it takes me to the internet to "androidantivirus.com" or something of the sort (half of the URL was cut off when browsing) and tells me to download the product.
Click to expand...

Oh, and never, ever download "antiviruses" or anything suggested to you by pop-ups that redirect browsers.

In fact, I would be very suspicious of anything my browser would take me to from that point on until I did some verifications - some of these things are known to redirect browsers to their own malicious sites.
 
Beerina said:
Unfortunately, some of the apps from Google Play actually do the "alerts" type spam advertising, including asinine scary warnings abour virus infections, or "your smartphone is running slowly!" type fraud. He might not even have a virus but rather just an irritating app.

Un-install apps in reverse order of what you installed the past few weeks until it is gone.

Better yet, look up each app on the Internet to see if people are discussing it as installing scary "alerts" of the type you're seeing. That's even faster to narrow it down.
Click to expand...



Good advice. I recommended Avast since I know it doesn't do that. The add thing I mean.
 
Sounds very much like scareware, similar to the "We have detected xxx errors on your machine Please do a free scan to fix this"

Amazing how these websites can scan the entire OS and file system in milliseconds and accurately provide with this info,

had a couple of live wallpaper packs that did this, uninstalled and reported every one of them, I won't put up with it on my PC I most certainly wont put up with it on my phone.

Avast is good, AVG do a nice one as well.

And before any particular OS fanboys get smug, Malware writers profit either monetarily or infamy from such complacency, I would rather have a company that specialises in identifying and removing these potential risks protecting my device opposed to a marketing and coding review team that probably will not include Miscreant coders.
 
Just because a thread happens to involve phones does not mean it is the place to start yet another argument about the companies that make them.
Replying to this modbox in thread will be off topic  Posted By: Cuddles
 
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