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Spam in notification area?

N

Ncage1974

Member
I've started getting spam in my notification area.
Note: I've only noticed this on cyanogen 7.

I was running Cyanogen 7.1 i think. The add was either the same or similar:

"Zombie Lands
the No. 1 hottest game in google play"

I installed AOKP for awhile but it was to buggy for my phone.

Then i went back to cyanogen 7.2 lately and i got the spam again.

I've installed Airblocker & Airpush detector and neither can find any offending applications. I prefer not to have to go and try to uninstall apps to get rid of the ads (i don't even know at this point how much it shows up). Any help would be appreciated.
 
Hadron said:
Try Addons Detector, or Lookout's ad network detector, and see whether they can find the culprit.
Click to expand...

Nope neither worked. Lookout just found the general In-App adds which are fine like admob. Hopefully if i don't get if figured out Addons dector with its notification monitor will help me figure out whats creating the notification.
 
May be a new ad company, yet unknown for the AirPush detectors.

I saw a method to catch AirPush in a time when there wasn't any AirPush detectors available ;)

You could try that with a phone logger like aLogcat or similar.

Wait until the annoying ad appears in you notification bar.
Start 'aLogcat' and then clear its log.
Then pull down the notification bar and tip on the icon of the annoying ad.
Return quickly to aLogcat (via long press on the HOME button or the Multitasking button).
Now you should see the culprit app and following it the AirPush SDK in the log's rows.

Good luck :)
Harry
 
That happened to me when I installed some shady live wallpaper from the android market. Only thing that worded for me was to do a factory reset. :( Good luck!
 
Harry2 said:
May be a new ad company, yet unknown for the AirPush detectors.

I saw a method to catch AirPush in a time when there wasn't any AirPush detectors available ;)

You could try that with a phone logger like aLogcat or similar.

Wait until the annoying ad appears in you notification bar.
Start 'aLogcat' and then clear its log.
Then pull down the notification bar and tip on the icon of the annoying ad.
Return quickly to aLogcat (via long press on the HOME button or the Multitasking button).
Now you should see the culprit app and following it the AirPush SDK in the log's rows.

Good luck :)
Harry
Click to expand...

Harry that was an AWESOME idea. Fortunately i never cleared the notification because i thought maybe i would get a tip on how to find which application caused it by having the notification still active. Fortunately i'm technically inclined being a programmer by trade but i'm only slight competent in the unix/linux arena so i was worried i wouldn't be able to pick out what was causing the ad but i was :). It was quite easy. The use a referrer header just like http does. Just for future knowledge of anyone trying this...try to be quick there is a HUGE amount of info put out by one of these logging programs. Anyways without further adieu here is what i found:

VIEW dat=market://details?id=com.game.zombielands&referrer=utm_source%3DGOKeyboard_Notification%26utm_medium%3DNotification%26utm_campaign%3Dzombielands_ads

In case anyone doesn't recognize this its this application:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5qYi5nb2tleWJvYXJkIl0.

GO Keyboard: I'm VERY surprised. This app is very highly rated on the android market and to be frank an excellent keyboard. I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of those apps that seem shady on the marketplace but this didn't. I wandered how the monetized their applications since all of them are very good but cost nothing. Now i know how. I understand app makers have to make money and all and i don't mind one bit in-app ads but throwing ads into the notification area is beyond shady. I was about to switch to their launcher too. Glad i didn't.
I will be very leary of any app made by a group of Chinese developers (especially if its free). If i had the option to pay for this keyboard and the company hadn't pis$ed me off with their tactics i would.

Ncage
 
Updated Go Contacts EX a few days ago, and started getting Notification Bar Spam. Ad Network, Airblocker and Air Push Detector didn't pick it up, but Addons Detector did. Found it was Go Contacts EX that was spamming it.
Left a 1 star review on the Play Store, along with many others. Hopefully they will remove it in the next update, otherwise I will uninstall.
 
My response might be a bit late but I found the exact same push advert in my notification bar and tracked it to 'Blue Neon Go Launcher Theme'.
 
I joined the forum just to add my voice to this. "Smart TV Remote" is also an AirPush culprit.

At first, I couldn't work out how these ads were getting to my notification bar and I therefore deleted/disabled all sorts of apps/processes before I found the forum.

Many thanks for the guidance. I've uninstalled, left a 1 star rating and marked all similar reviews as 'Helpful'. 'fingers crossed I'll see no more of the ads.

I understand that Droid 4.1 (Jelly Bean) includes an option to disable push notifications. I hope my shiny new Galaxy S3 gets the upgrade soon.
 
I have a feeling this type of ad spam is going to be the norm and Google is not going to do anything about it because, technically, the devs aren't doing anything inappropriate.

Also, numerous free themes for Go Launcher, the free version of ICS Launcher (which AppBrain Ad Detector complains about even after buying the unlock key).

Edit: I stand corrected. Contapps does not use push ads.
 
I finally found a program that could actually locate the offending app that was sending my Samsung Galaxy S3 span notifications about 3-4 times per day.

I downloaded this free app: Airpush Finder and it found it in about 3 seconds. The app that was sending the Spam was: Win Translator

Try it.
 
IREPTILE said:
I finally found a program that could actually locate the offending app that was sending my Samsung Galaxy S3 span notifications about 3-4 times per day.

I downloaded this free app: Airpush Finder and it found it in about 3 seconds. The app that was sending the Spam was: Win Translator

Try it.
Click to expand...

Your S3 should have Jelly Bean ... so you might try this with an advertising push notification :)

Long press on the advertising's notification until the the notification will get a soft-button "App Info". This will show you the culprit app that raised the notification.

And with Jelly Bean you don't even need to uninstall the app, just uncheck its notification ability in Settings, Apps ...

Harry
 
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