Android - experiencing Malware / Intrusive Ads / Popups

[Nerfherder]

Doesn't matter, the point is:

1. Pop‑up ads that take over the entire screen and cannot be dismissed.
2. The power button becomes blocked so you cannot switch off the phone.
3. The phone takes control of itself. If you try to open Settings, it immediately closes.
4. You cannot close recent apps, and similar issues.

All of these phones have those "free" games with the adverts installed and being used. Those adverts are used to installed other crap which leads to the issue.

My uncle had an issue the other day and phoned me to help, it was some full screen adware thing and it looks like he clicked on some antivirus advert which was the start of all this nonsense.

Pretty ironic but you can see why the old people are falling for it.
I suppose you can install Family Link as it does let you manage what is installed on the device.
The problem is that it has its own overheads so on those older\cheaper phones it will slow things down.

 

[Lupus]

Doesn't matter, the point is:

1. Pop‑up ads that take over the entire screen and cannot be dismissed.
2. The power button becomes blocked so you cannot switch off the phone.
3. The phone takes control of itself. If you try to open Settings, it immediately closes.
4. You cannot close recent apps, and similar issues.

All of these phones have those "free" games with the adverts installed and being used. Those adverts are used to installed other crap which leads to the issue.

Yeah that's malware or even a virus of some sorts.

 

[N@t3]

Crap, I had something like this with a friends device, did manage to sort out , I did have a license for Eset Mobile and scanned the device, and also had to remove some apps they downloaded that caused those adds to pop up.

 

[Anthro]

I was in the Vodacom4U store the other day, elderly lady sitting there asking for assistance with intrusive 'ads / pop-ups' from Gemini.
Oh boy

 

[warrenpridgeon]

Bump gestures are working better. Tap the right of the phone twice to skip forward 5,10,15 seconds (configurable amount), tap three times to skip to next song, left side of the phone for skip back or previous song.

Just waiting for playstore to approve if anyone wants a free, no tracking, no ads media player.

Flex Music Player: free offline music player for Android, no ads

An Android music player for the songs already on your phone. It keeps playing for hours with the screen off, has no ads and doesn't even ask for internet access.

flexmusicplayer.co.za

Input / suggestions welcome.

 

[RedViking]

Bump gestures are working better. Tap the right of the phone twice to skip forward 5,10,15 seconds (configurable amount), tap three times to skip to next song, left side of the phone for skip back or previous song.

Just waiting for playstore to approve if anyone wants a free, no tracking, no ads media player.

Flex Music Player: free offline music player for Android, no ads

An Android music player for the songs already on your phone. It keeps playing for hours with the screen off, has no ads and doesn't even ask for internet access.

flexmusicplayer.co.za

Input / suggestions welcome.

I'm not sure what this has to do with this thread. You would be better to create a seperate thread for this or find a more appropriate thread. This has to do with malware and pop-up intrusive ads.

 

[naughty001]

try this

Go to Settings > Device Care, tap the three dots in the top corner > Settings, and enable Block apps with excessive ads (if available on your software version).

 

[Lupus]

try this

But ads are the whole Xiaomi schtick.

 

[Suspect99]

My aunt had this. Turned out to be tiktok lite

 

[naughty001]

But ads are the whole Xiaomi schtick.

yes i understand - but Xiaomi doesnt make a full screen ad appear every two minutes - the Xiaomi ads are generally small pop-ups at the bottom of the page and those too can be turned off

the solution i was offering is in regard to the Samsung and oppo phones that get the malware from installing the games and apps like all the crappy PDF readers and dodgy apps which spread the virus with the full screen ads just taking over your phone and stopping everything else from actually working as a phone is supposed to work

the solution that seems to work for me is to find the faulty app that was recently installed that is causing this nonsense and to delete it, and then to turn off the setting as described above - it has worked for me on three phones so far - each time the nonsensical dodgy app that was installed from facebook and youtube adverts was a PDF reader called strangely enough "PDF reader" - we have managed to stop the ads on the samsung phones but did not manage on the oppo phone -which actually required a complete reset to factory settings

 

[RedViking]

yes i understand - but Xiaomi doesnt make a full screen ad appear every two minutes - the Xiaomi ads are generally small pop-ups at the bottom of the page and those too can be turned off

the solution i was offering is in regard to the Samsung and oppo phones that get the malware from installing the games and apps like all the crappy PDF readers and dodgy apps which spread the virus with the full screen ads just taking over your phone and stopping everything else from actually working as a phone is supposed to work

the solution that seems to work for me is to find the faulty app that was recently installed that is causing this nonsense and to delete it, and then to turn off the setting as described above - it has worked for me on three phones so far - each time the nonsensical dodgy app that was installed from facebook and youtube adverts was a PDF reader called strangely enough "PDF reader" - we have managed to stop the ads on the samsung phones but did not manage on the oppo phone -which actually required a complete reset to factory settings

Yeah all these phones have dodgy PDF readers on and some probably more than 10 pdf reader apps installed. The challenge is to beat the pop-ups so you can get to the settings. Doing it remotely is nearly impossible. Majority of them are Samsung's.

 

[Gordon_R]

Yeah all these phones have dodgy PDF readers on and some probably more than 10 pdf reader apps installed. The challenge is to beat the pop-ups so you can get to the settings. Doing it remotely is nearly impossible. Majority of them are Samsung's.

When I got my current hand-me-down phone and did all the necessary upgrades (after a factory reset), I got very intrusive ads telling me to upgrade my PDF reader. I have no idea where it came from, but I flatly refused to install it, and eventually it went away. I think people fall for these tricks because they somehow seem important, and vaguely credible (everyone has heard of PDF but not everyone understands it).