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Help Suspected spyware app

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Hello, my Motorola G8 Power smartphone is behaving weird and is sometimes really slow. I also heard someone interfering in my phone call as I was speaking. I have ESET Nod32 Premium and Malwarebytes installed. I scanned with both and the scans came out clean. Any idea on how to resolve this issue?
 
First, ditch any 'security' type apps.
They are unnecessary, and are only going to contribute to the slowness of your device.
(They run constantly, and any app that does so will slow the device more.)

Second, how much of the internal memory is being used up?

The sysrem will use a certain amount, and the rest is for you.

This memory is separate from how much RAM the device has.

The amount of memory left empty should be equal to or greater than the amount of RAM the device can use.
If not, this can also contribute to a slow device.

Generally it is smart to only fill up about 70% of the total internal memory, because apps grow as they are used- both system and user apps do this.

If you now realize that you are out of space, a quick, simple, help is to eliminate any apps that you can otherwise access with your browser.

Finally, your browser.
The most popular browsers (Chrome, Firefox, etc.) are often much larger and slower than others.

To help easily monitor your device memory (and other neat things) try this:

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.kgurgul.cpuinfo/

And try this for a browser:

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/acr.browser.lightning/
 
just because your phone runs slow or that you hear somebodies voice while you are on a call does not mean you have spyware. spyware is by name designed to spy on you. they are designed so that you would not notice that they are there. and they are there usually to gleam info about you are getting things like your credit card info as well as your contact list.

the voice part is easy to explain. on occasion when someone calls my and either i have bad reception or the caller does, sometimes i can hear another phone call. its vague and extremely hard to hear and does not happen all that often so i pay not attention to it.

so relax, no one is spying on you. and when in doubt do this:
  1. backup everything
  2. change all of your passwords
  3. setup two step verification on applicable accounts
  4. factory reset your device
 
ocnbrze said:
just because your phone runs slow or that you hear somebodies voice while you are on a call does not mean you have spyware. spyware is by name designed to spy on you. they are designed so that you would not notice that they are there. and they are there usually to gleam info about you are getting things like your credit card info as well as your contact list.

the voice part is easy to explain. on occasion when someone calls my and either i have bad reception or the caller does, sometimes i can hear another phone call. its vague and extremely hard to hear and does not happen all that often so i pay not attention to it.

so relax, no one is spying on you. and when in doubt do this:
  1. backup everything
  2. change all of your passwords
  3. setup two step verification on applicable accounts
  4. factory reset your device
Click to expand...
Hello and thanks. What is the best way to backup my data? Is there an app to do this or should I do it manually?
 
puppykickr said:
First, ditch any 'security' type apps.
They are unnecessary, and are only going to contribute to the slowness of your device.
(They run constantly, and any app that does so will slow the device more.)

Second, how much of the internal memory is being used up?

The sysrem will use a certain amount, and the rest is for you.

This memory is separate from how much RAM the device has.

The amount of memory left empty should be equal to or greater than the amount of RAM the device can use.
If not, this can also contribute to a slow device.

Generally it is smart to only fill up about 70% of the total internal memory, because apps grow as they are used- both system and user apps do this.

If you now realize that you are out of space, a quick, simple, help is to eliminate any apps that you can otherwise access with your browser.

Finally, your browser.
The most popular browsers (Chrome, Firefox, etc.) are often much larger and slower than others.

To help easily monitor your device memory (and other neat things) try this:

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.kgurgul.cpuinfo/

And try this for a browser:

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/acr.browser.lightning/
Click to expand...
Hello and thank you. My storage is 66% full or 42.44 GB from 64 GB. I have 4 GB of RAM, but I don't know how to check how much is being used at the moment.
 
whois1230 said:
Hello and thank you. My storage is 66% full or 42.44 GB from 64 GB. I have 4 GB of RAM, but I don't know how to check how much is being used at the moment.
Click to expand...

Check out the applink in my previous post (CPU Info).

The phone gives you storage info based on total.
The app tells you how much of the total is available to you.

It will also tell how much RAM is occupied and what the threshold is.
Threshold is how much RAM you can leave open and still function.
 
puppykickr said:
Check out the applink in my previous post (CPU Info).

The phone gives you storage info based on total.
The app tells you how much of the total is available to you.

It will also tell how much RAM is occupied and what the threshold is.
Threshold is how much RAM you can leave open and still function.
Click to expand...
https://imgur.com/a/dm2P2F3
 
If my Wi-Fi and Mobile Data are both turned off, could someone spy on me through my camera? And if they did, would the photos/videos be shown in my pictures folder?
 
There are apps to block the camera and microphone.

Android only allows one app at a time to access either of these items.

So, these apps simply tell the device that the camera/microphone is in use, and so no other app can then use them.

Technically, if someone wanted to access your camera or microphone, they would do it through an app that is already on the device.

That is why it is so important to check the permissions of the apps that you put onto and that are built into a device.

To further the issue, when apps are updated, permissions can be added or changed, and this should be monitored.

Last but not least, the blocking apps for the camera and microphone are basically guaranteed to block any unauthorized use of them from USER apps- the apps that you download and install yourself- but there is no guarantee that they will block access from SYSTEM apps- the apps that are permanently on the device from the carrier and the manufacturer.

In my opinion, the best blocking apps will have a device administer function built in.
This makes it much more difficult to dodge the blocking app.

The last thing to consider is how much do you trust the developer(s) of the blocking app?

The most trustworthy apps are open source, meaning that the code can be inspected by anyone- so they have nothing to hide- and are referred to as FOSS (Free Open Source Software).

Also, since the business model of Google is to accumulate information about its users, you may want to thoroughly inspect any app you get from there- especially a blocking app like we are discussing.

A great app to check the permissions and other things in apps is called Addons Detector.

https://addons-detector.en.uptodown.com/android

A good microphone blocker that is open source is called PilferShush.
(No device administer, but the developer has his reasons.) This app can also give information about the spying potential of other apps on the device.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/cityfreqs.com.pilfershushjammer/

As for a camera blocker, the one I use seems to no longer be available anywhere.
I have no idea why.

So, I will leave that choice up to you.

Remember that any blocking app must run continuously (a device administrator really helps with this) and so your battery life per charge may take a hit, although a well written app should make this unnoticeable.

If you really want to prevent spying on you through your device, you can look up how to make a 'bogphone', but be advised that your online activity is monitored by many.

The camera and microphone can be physically removed.
No phone needs a camera to work, and a wired (preferred) or bluetooth headset with microphone will take the place of the removed microphone.

There are Faraday cages available for devices, that prevent signals from getting into or out of any electronic device.

And don't forget about the keyboard app that you are using.
The keyboard can have the capability of sending everything that you type to someone else.

Personally, I use keyboard apps that have no suggestions, no predictive text, no user dictionary, an no internet accessibility.
At the very least, these items should be turned off. (Are they really off, though?)
Are you using G-Board?
If so, I would drop that one ASAP.

There is just so much to list here.

Of course, the powers that be are probably monitoring all of this thread as well...
 
whois1230 said:
If my Wi-Fi and Mobile Data are both turned off, could someone spy on me through my camera? And if they did, would the photos/videos be shown in my pictures folder?
Click to expand...

I just reakized that in my long first reply I did not answer the questions.

The device is not in airplane mode, meaning that the carrier can still access it, and you still can call and text.
Not sure here, but in my mind access is access.

I know it 'sounds crazy', but there are those that say a device is always spying on us- even when off, and even if the battery is removed.
Don't ask, I don't really know how and would only be guessing.

As for whether or not you would see the pictures, I doubt it.
What kind of a quality spy would leave traces like that behind?

There are many, many images (and other things) stored in user inaccessible places on a device.

Just try out some app designed to recover lost images/videos.

You will most likely see things that you don't even remember or have never even seen on the device.
 
puppykickr said:
I just reakized that in my long first reply I did not answer the questions.

The device is not in airplane mode, meaning that the carrier can still access it, and you still can call and text.
Not sure here, but in my mind access is access.

I know it 'sounds crazy', but there are those that say a device is always spying on us- even when off, and even if the battery is removed.
Don't ask, I don't really know how and would only be guessing.

As for whether or not you would see the pictures, I doubt it.
What kind of a quality spy would leave traces like that behind?

There are many, many images (and other things) stored in user inaccessible places on a device.

Just try out some app designed to recover lost images/videos.

You will most likely see things that you don't even remember or have never even seen on the device.
Click to expand...
Is there a way to run a boot time scan on my Android phone? Avast Antivirus has this feature on Windows and there are several Antivirus rescue disks that can scan before boot.
 
I have no idea.
Antivirus apps on Android are a total waste of time and resources.

You can use Addons Detector to find which apps have start on boot permissions.

You can also use Greenify, with which you can forcestop all/any apps that are running.

Then restart the device, and the apps that are running most likely have start on boot permission.

Pretty much any system app that is running in the foreground has start on boot permission.
 
puppykickr said:
I have no idea.
Antivirus apps on Android are a total waste of time and resources.

You can use Addons Detector to find which apps have start on boot permissions.

You can also use Greenify, with which you can forcestop all/any apps that are running.

Then restart the device, and the apps that are running most likely have start on boot permission.

Pretty much any system app that is running in the foreground has start on boot permission.
Click to expand...
I backed up my data and performed a factory reset. My backup is located in a folder on my desktop. I will monitor my battery, as it drained quickly before the factory reset. If in theory there was malware, could it have remained in the backup? The laptop OS is Kubuntu Linux
 
puppykickr said:
I guess it could, if you backed up everything.

Everything is everything.

What sort of thing makes you think that there was malware on the device?
Click to expand...
The battery was draining fast, at times the phone was slow and some applications minimized without me clicking anything.
 
Sounds like a bad battery, a crappy update, and/or too many apps on the device.

Was it any particular app(s) that you noticed where the phone was slow?

Clear the caches of apps that fit this description.

Some apps grow so large that they slow everything down.
 
puppykickr said:
Sounds like a bad battery, a crappy update, and/or too many apps on the device.

Was it any particular app(s) that you noticed where the phone was slow?

Clear the caches of apps that fit this description.

Some apps grow so large that they slow everything down.
Click to expand...
Today I got a text message from my mobile operator which says:
"Your mobile device is infected by malware and is not yet cleaned. For safety reasons your SIM card will be blocked from sending text messages. Please completely clean your device and call us to activate the sending of text messages."
This is after I did a factory reset. I am going to re-flash the ROM.
 
whois1230 said:
Today I got a text message from my mobile operator which says:
"Your mobile device is infected by malware and is not yet cleaned. For safety reasons your SIM card will be blocked from sending text messages. Please completely clean your device and call us to activate the sending of text messages."
This is after I did a factory reset. I am going to re-flash the ROM.
Click to expand...

That sounds like spam to me.
You need to verify that this message is actually from your carrier.

Have you tried sending any texts to verify that they are actually blocked?

Is there a link to any cleaning app in the text you were sent?
If so....
SPAM.
 
puppykickr said:
That sounds like spam to me.
You need to verify that this message is actually from your carrier.

Have you tried sending any texts to verify that they are actually blocked?

Is there a link to any cleaning app in the text you were sent?
If so....
SPAM.
Click to expand...
I called the carrier and verified that the message is from them. They said it was a phishing attack which other customers got as well. I clicked some kind of link in a text message, which led to the infection. I just tried sending a text and it doesn't work. There is no link to any cleaning app in the message. There is a link to the mobile operator's website and their hotline number, both of which are genuine.
 
But you did say that this occured AFTER a factory reset, right?

Did you tell your carrier that you did a reset?

A reset should have eliminated anything that was not originally on the device.
 
puppykickr said:
But you did say that this occured AFTER a factory reset, right?

Did you tell your carrier that you did a reset?

A reset should have eliminated anything that was not originally on the device.
Click to expand...
Yes, I got the text message after a factory reset and was later told to do another reset, which I did. The carrier said that a reset would eliminate the malware and activated my text messages today. I was also told to only install apps from the Play Store.
 
whois1230 said:
Yes, I got the text message after a factory reset and was later told to do another reset, which I did. The carrier said that a reset would eliminate the malware and activated my text messages today. I was also told to only install apps from the Play Store.
Click to expand...

That part about the Play Store is crap.
The point is to not download apps from untrustworthy places.

The Play Store has more adware and malware in apps than many other app stores.

They told you that because it is on the script that they are reading from.

Did they ever tell you what app it was?
 
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