How does this scam work?

[writerman]

For the second time in just a few days, I have had this annoying message appear on the screen of my Samsung Galaxy S3...

You have (13) virus...
or some such.

Yes, I know it's a scam. The thing that always gets me about these scammers is how they can be technically quite clever and yet so totally inept when it comes to spelling and grammar. The message was so badly written I never once considered it could be anything other than a scam.

My question is, technically, how are they able to get this trap message to appear on my screen in the first place? The message appears, unprompted and uninvited. It doesn't seem to follow any particular action on my part. How do they do that? Have I got something running on my phone that allows them in? Is there anything I can do to block this, and similar, messages from appearing on my screen?

Kind regards
Keith

 

[funkylogik]

Chances are its a "free" app doing it. Run the app Lookout Ad Network Detector and see what it throws up :thumbup:

 

[breadnatty08]

If it's in your status bar, it may be an Airpushed ad. You can try this app if Lookout doesn't catch it:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brosmike.airpushdetector&hl=en

 

[writerman]

Thanks for the responses. It finally occurred to me that the original message was in my browsers history. I created a new browser tab and deleted the old tab. After that, the problem went away.
Thanks again for your interest.
Keith