Video Ads Playing EVERY TIME I Turn One of My Mobile Phones on. (and 'Randomly' Thereafter)

GnarlyKnuckles on 22/01/2019 - 23:46

Please forgive my ignorance re this issue. I have a mobile phone (Sony Xperior XA) that I have essentially 'handed over' control of to my very young son after upgrading to a better one for myself. He has of course installed trillions of apps and games on it, which I have no problem with/that was the whole idea of me upgrading to a better phone.

The problem is that now, every time we turn on 'his' phone, all sorts of random 'video ads' begin to play/are 'streamed to the phone', for no apparent reason. To be clear, this happens BEFORE any specific app or game is opened/activated. I have dutifully gone through the entire list of apps in the settings menu and deactivated any 'notifications' associated with any of them, so that is not the problem.

There are some indications that these 'incessant video ads' are emanating from Google, but there are also indications that this may not be the case (?).

My initial question is, has anyone else had a similar problem, and if so did you manage to solve it/how?

I have searched for answers extensively on the net, but doing so is a bit problematic because my problem 'overlaps' with so many very similar (yet ultimately entirely different) problems pertaining to Google-ads, Apple mobiles, laptops, 'outlook profiles', etc…

Any advice about this would be very much appreciated.

Mobile Mobile Phone Sony Android

Comments

  • RichardL on 22/01/2019 - 23:55
    +13

    I'm suspecting that the phone has adware/viruses on it from one of the multiple apps that was installed.

    I would save all important document and images to an external device and 'Factory Restore/Reset' wipe everything.

  • Daabido on 22/01/2019 - 23:58
    +5

    Your son has screwed it with his trillions of apps and games. One of the advantages of Apple's walled garden approach is that you don't see this. Factory reset and see if it does it then. If so, his phone is haunted.

  • Sergeant Salami on 23/01/2019 - 00:00
    +4

    Before you factory reset it, try using Malwarebytes and run a scan. Hopefully it picks up the dodgey app and you can then remove it. If that doesn't detect anything then try Sophos Mobile Security and if that fails, then factory reset it. One or both apps should detect the dodgey app(s). If you need any help, shoot me a PM/DM.

    • Diji1 on 23/01/2019 - 12:12
      +2

      No don't do that, factory reset the device.

      Antivirus tools are not a silver bullet and the first thing any competent blackhatter does is make sure their malicious software is not detected by antivirus tools which is very easy.

      • Beanvee on 23/01/2019 - 14:57

        Malwarebytes has one hell of a good reputation and is constantly updated. I can't imagine simple adware would be using any kind of special stealth methods that would be unknown to the vast majority of reputable anti-malware programs.

        • SDF05 on 23/01/2019 - 19:20

          On PC, they definitely have a great reputation. Not so much for their mobile versions (especially iOS).

          I agree on the factory reset thing, probably the best thing to do right now to remove adware/malware. MalwareBytes won't do a good job on that, especially on iOS. Also if he/she's backed up all their important stuff it's pretty easy to restore them after the factory reset.

  • GnarlyKnuckles on 23/01/2019 - 00:07

    LOL… I searched the internet for days trying to ascertain FOCUSED advice like this, to no avail.
    Within a few minutes (less than 10!) of posting my problem here on OzB, 'KaPAPSKI!; some ACTUAL POTENTIALLY USEFUL/TARGETED ADVICE!

    I guess that is the difference between search engines and humans. Thank you kindly, your advice/wisdom/experience/contributions are very much appreciated.

    • Ughhh on 23/01/2019 - 00:12
      +3

      Same thing applies to computers and browsers too, if you see random popups and applications running without your permission/click.

      • GnarlyKnuckles on 23/01/2019 - 00:16

        MMyeah I'm 'right across' the problem on desk-tops/lap-tops Ug-boots, but when it comes to mobies I find that the game changes; and I am lost.

        • Ughhh on 23/01/2019 - 00:22
          +1

          What I mean is that the indications (of virus/malware etc) are basically the same.

  • [Deactivated] on 23/01/2019 - 02:20
    +3

    You could probably find out which app causing the issue, by googling each app name, and the word "malware" . The culprit will likely come up with an abundance of others with same issue.

    I guess that is the difference between search engines and humans.

    For "FOCUSED advice" , when you are coming up with too many results. You need to narrow your focus of search by adding and/or removing terms. Can remove terms from results, by placing minus sign -in -front -of -words -to -remove-from -search . This is a universal type thing, works with most search things (even eBay)

    Hopefully your malwarescan works and picks it up. Factory reset would certainly clear it up. Then install just a few apps, then maybe install 5 per day of what he had on there. When problem comes back, you know it was 1 of the 5 that day, then isolate from there which app .

    • GnarlyKnuckles on 23/01/2019 - 12:53

      Sagely advice chewy. I actually consider myself a highly skilled 'internet searcher' (frequently use operators etc.) because I do it every day as part of my job, but just for this particular problem, I found it uniquely hard to perform searches that yielded the desired results. The problem is that every single relevant search term (mobile, android, video, add, spam, adware, etc.) is associated with so many other things that are entirely unrelated to my specific problem.

      That idea about slowly putting the games/apps back on (5 per day) until the problem recurs is a great one. I am now virtually obsessed with identifying the culprit! (and then of course mercilessly shaming the mob responsible for making/releasing/supplying the app/game online, in as many ways/forums/etc. as possible)…
      All the games/apps on that phone are targeted at kids aged about 8 or under, so this is a pretty low tactic that has been used by whichever app/game is responsible; capitalising on the naivety of young children (for all I know, my boy actually 'consented' to some 'in game' request that was a very cryptically-worded request to allow video ads to be shown on the phone every 3 minutes or so whenever the phone was on!) to virtually "hijack" a phone!

  • Strahany on 23/01/2019 - 12:18
    +1

    I can't believe its 2019 and Android phones are still able to be riddled with Adware and Malware within a few presses.

    • Ughhh on 23/01/2019 - 19:03
      +1

      Freedom to install what you want from where you want comes with a price.

      • Strahany on 23/01/2019 - 19:45

        It sounds like this has come from the official Play Store. Sideloading random APK’s? Sure, I’d expect there to be a risk, especially for the uninformed (and moreso with a child). But you’d like to think that installing it from the official Play Store should have no risk of anything like this.

        I would’ve thought Google learned their lesson from the “flashlight app” fiasco.

    • SDF05 on 23/01/2019 - 19:22

      It's just gotten easier for them to trick users into installing other apps which contain adware and malware. And since micro transactions are kinda normalized these days, it's no wonder why users will fall into that trap, even now.

      • Strahany on 23/01/2019 - 19:48

        You’re not wrong.

        I would note that whilst I am an advocate of people taking responsibility for their own actions, I would think that it’s not unreasonable to expect zero adware/malware issues from an app downloaded from the OS’s official source, especially when there are none of these issues on the leading competitor to Android.

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