Malware Infection/removal

[Rodney Tetreault]

I am getting notices pop up in chrome continuously telling my my phone has been infected and to download apps to fix it. I know this is false and have cleared my cookies and history several time but this keeps happening. Obviously I am infected with something but how do I get rid of it? I have installed mcafee and a couple other virus cleaners from google play but they find no issues.....PLEASE HELP!!

 

[Hadron]

If it's only in Chrome it's probably just an additional script loaded by the browser. Have you cleared Chrome's cache? If nothing else works you could clear all data for Chrome (which will mean you lose bookmarks if you haven't backed up).

 

[Rodney Tetreault]

If it's only in Chrome it's probably just an additional script loaded by the browser. Have you cleared Chrome's cache? If nothing else works you could clear all data for Chrome (which will mean you lose bookmarks if you haven't backed up).

Thanks for the reply. I have cleared history, cookies and such but how do you clear the cache in chrome...Sorry for my ignorance.

 

[lunatic59]

Thanks for the reply. I have cleared history, cookies and such but how do you clear the cache in chrome...Sorry for my ignorance.

Go to settings>apps>chrome>storage and from there you can clear the cache.

 

[Rodney Tetreault]

ok thanks. I did clear the cache but it is still happening??

 

[lunatic59]

Then it's probably something attached to an app like adware. Can you think of any apps that you installed or updated just before this started happening?

The definitive test is to boot into safe mode and if that clears up the problem, then it's definitely an app.

 

[Rodney Tetreault]

Thanks again for the info. i did boot it up in safe mode and it continued. I deleted any apps that I had downloaded since the problem started and then cleared the cache again but it still continued so I did what I hoped to avoid all along and reset everything back to factory. Now I have the joy of re configuring everything but it is not doing it anymore

 

[lunatic59]

I really hate to tell you this, but if safe mode didn't stop it, it's likely to be malware that was installed as a system app.

The only thing that will get rid of it is flashing a stock copy of the phone's original firmware. I don't see anything available on sammobile.com so you should probably use Samsung's Smart Switch emergency recovery option. Here's a video showing you the steps needed.

 

[kokiangel]

Ouch! Guess you are serving as a warning to us all to be extra careful.

 

[lunatic59]

In big red letters, with bells, sirens and flags waving. Subtlety was never my strong suit.

 

[robinbarto]

Did u try reinstalling chrome first?

 

[Duckster]

Try malwarebytes for Android in the app store. I have used this on my phone and desktop/laptop and it has never failed me. Good lick. I thought that clearing the cache would have done it, but since it did not, maybe malwarebytes will work.

 

[InfernalByte]

Thanks again for the info. i did boot it up in safe mode and it continued. I deleted any apps that I had downloaded since the problem started and then cleared the cache again but it still continued so I did what I hoped to avoid all along and reset everything back to factory. Now I have the joy of re configuring everything but it is not doing it anymore

Go through your Chrome Apps, (found in a menu within the browser) and disable everything you don't recognise. You can then turn them back on one by one.