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Help Need help with a weird popup I'm getting

M

mrsiCkstar

Lurker
Okay so this morning I was browsing the net on my Desire using the Dolphin browser and I went to my bookmarks and tapped on Gamespot to go to their site. the site loads and then all of a sudden I get a popup window saying something like this:

(original text was in norwegian so this is a translation)

The website fun4u.mobi says: Warning. You should scan your Android device for spyware. We recommend you download, install and run a full Threat Scan.

The popup only had an OK button to tap on so I had to back out to my homescreen and then force close the browser to get rid of it. Then I restarted my browser and went to the SkySports website and the same popup appeared again. I force closed again and restarted my browser and just stayed on my homepage which is google.com and without doing anything at all except stay on that page the popup reappeared yet again.

I scanned my phone with the AVG app and it didn't find anything at all.

I've never seen a popup like that before on my phone. Only on a PC if I end up on some obscure website I've seen some obvious phishing or scam popup like that come up but never when I'm navigating a well-known established website I frequent multiple times a day.

Is my phone infected even though AVG found nothing? Weird thing is that I've been browsing on my phone now for a little bit and the popup is nowhere to be seen. It just doesn't make sense to me. If my phone was infected the popup would still be coming up right? But if it's some random popup on the internet why did it come up on websites that have never had popup ads or anything like that before and why did it come up on multiple websites that are not related with each other at all?

Is it some feature of Dolphin I didn't know about telling me to run a scan?

Any insight would be really appreciated. Should I be worried here? Should I do a factory reset?

Thanks guys.
 
I strongly doubt that its a virus but an app could be causing the popup. Did you install any "free" apps just before it started? Try running Lookout Ad Network Detector app :thumbup:
 
Thanks for your reply. No I haven't installed any apps lately. The last one I installed was ePSXe and that was maybe a month ago. No wait I installed Wordfeud around the same time.

Here is a list of the apps I've downloaded. All installed through the Google Play Store.

AntiTelefonTerror
AppMonsterFree
Currency Converter
Dolphin Browser
ePSXe
Gmail
gStrings
handyCalc
Yahoo Messenger
Note Everything
Poweramp
Quick Battery
Quick Settings
SDCard Manager
Solitaire
Wordfeud
 
Exact same issue here:

Modelnr: GT-I8730
Androidversion: 4.1.2
Kernelversion: 3.4.0-1006842


When I go to any page (be it a direct link or indirect through a search engine) on either of my two Android phones (different versions of Android), I get a popup, eventhough I have popups disabled, that says in my native language something like:
fun4u.mobi warning! You need to install a virus scanner (etc etc). The only option I can choose is "okay". There is no cross or cancel option. When I choose the back button it redirects me to their website anyway.
This is NOT a virus that got in my phone through some app I installed. I know this because:
- Two different phones, different Android versions, different apps installed
- It does this in any browser, Chrome, Standard Browser, Dolphin
- It only does this when I go to any page on Gamespot.com, except for direct links to mp4 videos

What have I done to resolve this:
- I scanned my phones for malware using AVG and Ad Network Detector
- Deleted cookies, cache and browser history

When I disable cookies and Java in my browser, the page loads fine and without any issues. This leads me to believe it is either a cookie or a Java issue with the website (maybe a Java virus???).

Screenshot_2013-09-21-13-58-17.png


Screenshot_2013-09-21-13-58-21.png
 
The computer scam is spreading to Android. Many people get this type of popup and fall for it. They follow the advice and do get malware or the computer is added to the bot network they own. Other times, the people who put in the malware demand a payment to get rid of it. This is also done by phone calls.
 
I strongly doubt that its a virus but an app could be causing the popup. Did you install any "free" apps just before it started? Try running Lookout Ad Network Detector app
Click to expand...
Any insight would be really appreciated. Should I be worried here?
Click to expand...

Exactly what funkylogik said. :)

Welcome aboard, mrsiCkstar...

I've moved your thread to its area of discussion.
 
Any advice on how to fix this? I've tried the Lookout Ad Network detector app. Doesn't find anything.

Like I said before, if I switch Java off in the browser settings, the popup doesn't come up...

I tried the website in my Android Emulator in my laptop, and then it doesn't happen. But with me it's only the gamespot website that does this. Other website's are fine.
 
Camoth said:
Any advice on how to fix this? I've tried the Lookout Ad Network detector app. Doesn't find anything.

Like I said before, if I switch Java off in the browser settings, the popup doesn't come up...

I tried the website in my Android Emulator in my laptop, and then it doesn't happen. But with me it's only the gamespot website that does this. Other website's are fine.
Click to expand...
I've tried the website with Chrome on my Sony tablet and didn't get that pop up.
So it might be after all an (updated) app on your phones which couldn't catched by Ad Network Detector yet.

So you might try other Airpush detectors or you might try my suggestion on this thread ...
http://androidforums.com/showthread.php?p=6109446

Harry
 
Thank you Harry. I will have a look at that.

Edit: wow, that's way too complicated for me unfortunately :-(. I think I'll do a factory reset then.
 
Hmmm.. that's odd. I haven't done anything to my phone and the issue is gone.. I posted this on the techforums of Gamespot but got no reply. Maybe they fixed it and it was a Java add issue?

Anyway: hurray!
 
I've been having a similar problem, but only in one ap (cracked.com reader) I have had the ap for ages but just started happening... it also says I have won a competition for a new phone rather than a virus scan warning.

Any ideas?
 
I take it that you tried all these detectors that are recommended in this thread.
So you'd try additionally 'Notification History'.

And you'd try this ...
To catch the culprit app you'd use the ADB tool on your PC, running a logcat with USB debugging on your phone.

Wait until the ad pops up.
Run "adb logcat" on PC, then start the ad on your phone's screen.
Now on logcat you'd see the activity which has opened the pop up ... and activity should give away the name of the culprit app.

Note, I've not any experience with the ADB (Android Debug Bridge) tool on PC ;) ... maybe someone could chirp in who knows about the usage of the ADB tool.
Harry
 
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