This is what is behind an alleged virus warning on Android smartphones and this is how you can get rid of it!
When surfing the web with your Android smartphone, the horror news suddenly comes: viruses damage the cell phone - or even the battery! You should tap a download button very quickly to prevent even more damage - before the displayed countdown has expired. STOP! If you do that, the damage actually occurs.
What's actually going on?
Such messages are “ advertising” . It appears while you are surfing the Internet. If you do other things on your phone, they don't appear. In some cases the phone even vibrates. This is possible with the help of Javascript, but ultimately it's nothing more than an effect to unsettle you even more.
The warnings are often written in bad German. Sometimes they have logos of well-known companies, such as Google, to appear more credible. It will also be displayed which device you are using or which operating system. This is because your browser automatically sends this information to the website.
The pest lurks behind the scareware
Such false virus warnings are an example of so-called scareware. The word is a combination of the English “scare” and “software”. It is intended to scare the user and encourage him to take rash actions. The “virus warning” is intended to make you install a new app. It then infects your system, spies on your data, sends expensive premium SMS or paralyzes your entire cell phone.
The makers of this advertising continually find ways to infiltrate their messages into large advertising networks so that they can also appear on reputable websites. In this way, subscription traps can lurk, for example. Although many network providers are already taking countermeasures here, you should still have a third-party block set up for your mobile Internet as a precaution!
This is what you should do with “virus warnings”.
If you see a message like this, above all, stay cool! And then:
- Close the browser app.
- Open your smartphone's settings.
- Tap on the “Applications” item (on some devices this is also called “Application Manager”, “Apps” or similar).
- Find your browser app that you use to access the Internet and tap it.
- In the Storage section, tap Clear Data. Note: this will cause already opened tabs and possibly saved form data to disappear.
- If you use different browsers, repeat this with all the others to be on the safe side.
- Such ads can also be triggered by apps. So consider whether you may have installed new apps before the messages appeared and delete them again.
Special case: The Facebook app
Such reports are increasingly appearing in the Facebook app. To curb this, you can set the app to open “links” in another browser. To do this, tap on the three bars at the top right of the Facebook app (if you're using Android), scroll to "Settings and privacy" and open the drop-down menu, then tap "Settings" and scroll down to "Media and contacts". . You tap it and activate “Links are opened externally”.
And then there are virus protection apps.
We discuss whether you need it or not in the article about smartphone virus protection . Ad blockers also prevent advertising from being displayed. However, this also threatens website operators with a loss of income and some have blocked their websites from users with ad blockers.
If you install apps, it's best to only install them from the Google Play Store. You can set your cell phone to only allow apps to be installed from there. To do this, tap “Device Security” (or similar) in “Settings”. “Unknown sources” must not be ticked or the slider must be set to “off”. Apple (iOS) does not allow you to install apps that do not come from the in-house app store without manipulation (jailbreak).
Source: Checked4you
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