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Battery adware

B

bohabmcoderus

Lurker
The past few days I've been bombarded with a notifcation informing me that my battery is losing charge (well duh!) and asking me to 'Tap here to download & fix now'. I'm no idiot so I know this is adware. Indeed, when I tap there I am asked to allow installs from unknown sources, meaning the app is asking me to download something not on the android market... or whatever they're calling it this week.

This is particularly annoying because the notification is accompanied with a double vibrate, the same as when I receive a text or a message over google talk. It's doubly particularly annoying as it keeps waking me up at night (sometimes I'm getting 3-4 notifications within a 10 minute period, but mostly its every 30-60 minutes or so).

I've tried a bunch of anti-virus software from the market including AVG, Avira and Zoner to no avail, aswell as Addons Detector and AirPush Detector. Neither find anything (although addons detector is arcane so I may be missing something).

This notification didn't begin after installing a new app, so I really don't know where it came from. I was getting ad notifications for the past 2 weeks or so after downloading some wallpaper apps (at least those ones didn't vibrate), but I uninstalled those apps and the notifications stopped, a couple of days later this one appeared.

Any help would be appreciated.

1.) Model Number? HTC Desire A8181
2.) Firmware Version? 2.2.2
3.) Baseband Version? 32.49.00.32U_5.11.05.27
4.) Kernel Version? 2.6.32.15-gf5a401c htc-kernel@and18-2 #1
5.) Build Number? 2.29.405.14 CL345208 release-keys

Carrier ? Orange

Country you are using your phone in ? UK
 
Maybe a new AirPush "player", yet unknown to the AirPush detectors of the Market.
Because the detectors need to have the name of the AirPush company in their lists.

You could try an other detector like Lookout's free 'Ad Network Detector'.

I also read about a method which may be helpfully if the AirPush detectors won't find any push notification addon in your apps.
The method was used before AirPush detectors were developed :)

You might catch the culprit app red handed with the aid of the phone logging app 'aLogcat' (free in Market).
But be warned, you'll need some experience with logs or the will to learn it ;)

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).
Now you should see the culprit app and following it the AirPush SDK in the log's rows.

Harry
 
I have experience with various logs on windows so I'll give it a go.

EDIT: For the record, this notification pops up regardless of whether I'm connected to the internet or not.
 
An other thought, Market, now Play Store has in the app's settings "Google Admob Ads", to be sure I'd uncheck that.

Harry
 
My wife's desire z started doing this. Had a search on the web and found out about airpush. Downloaded addons detector from market, found the culprit, removed it, and haven't had anything since.
 
bohabmcoderus said:
This notification didn't begin after installing a new app, so I really don't know where it came from.
Click to expand...
Don't be so sure about this. You're assuming that an app that includes this kind of annoying notification would start pushing the notifications immediately after you install it. Maybe the app waits two or three weeks before starting to push the notifications to you. There's no reason to believe it has to be an app you recently installed.
 
I have no doubt that this is the result of an installed application. I'm surprised that the Airpush detector didn't find the culprit - hmm! Kinda strange.

If all the above suggestions fail -- I'm positive that resetting the device will do the trick. If you decide to go that route, just be more attentive to the application(s) you install.

Best of luck.
 
aysiu said:
Don't be so sure about this. You're assuming that an app that includes this kind of annoying notification would start pushing the notifications immediately after you install it. Maybe the app waits two or three weeks before starting to push the notifications to you. There's no reason to believe it has to be an app you recently installed.
Click to expand...

Yes this occured to me last night. That said I believe all my apps are from fairly respectable sources and most I've had for 6+ months: AK Notepad, Animated GIF player, Astro File Manager, Drag Racing, Duke Nukem Soundboard, eBuddy, Egg Timer, Friend Caster, Galaxy, Paper Racing, Skater Boy, Solitaire, Sound Meter Lite, Speedcar and Unrar Free.

Anyway, I haven't recieved a notification since about 10 minutes before making this thread. Weird. Maybe it was all in my head :p If it happens again I'll post here.
 
bohabmcoderus said:
That said I believe all my apps are from fairly respectable sources
Click to expand...
The sources can be fine, and actually the app developers may not even believe they're distributing malware (I certainly don't know of any instances in which Google has pulled apps from Google Play/ Android Market for serving up Airpush ads. Legit apps can and do use this really annoying form of advertising. I haven't used any, but as far as I can tell (based on what I've read on these forums), others have found Airpush notification ads in plenty of apps from "respectable sources."
 
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