Help! Phone wiped after msgs from Google?

[UnplugMe]

I hope someone knowledgeable about how-things-work can help me with this.

We bought an unlocked HTC G2 for use with a prepaid non-data SIM card, so my senior citizen mom could use it on a trip overseas and also in the U.S.

Problems began when a language translation program (touted to be independent of internet, no data needed) began asking us to pay for it even though we already had.
It said to login to Google. We can't, there's no data plan.

Then it started asking us to login to Facebook and Twitter. We don't have Facebook or Twitter accounts, and again, no data plan.

Next thing we knew all apps installed disappeared from the phone. App icons I had removed are back in place, phone appears to have reset itself to the day we received it. Even books I'd sent to the phone via Bluetooth are gone, along with Aldiko from Android Market.

Does Android market control the entire phone even when there's no data plan? Could it "reach out" and delete my apps without using internet?
Is there some kind of rule that one can't use downloaded apps (even those purchased) unless Android Market keeps verifying them via a data network?

I don't know what to do. The man at the T-mobile store told us the phone was defective. I don't know if that's the case or if I'll have the same problems on any Android phone without data.

I don't want to go through a return/exchange and have this happen all over again.
Thanks in advance.

 

[danaj]

Well I believe your phone is very much defective. I am on my second android phone, and I still have my first one. I have no data on my first one. I can download apps while in a WiFi area, and can use those apps wherever I want, as long as they don't need internet access. The apps never get deleted...maybe you downloaded a malicious app, but more likely like the T-mobile rep said, your phone is defective.

 

[Gmash]

Either the phone is defective, or you downloaded a very malicious app that caused your phone to do a factory reset.

 

[UnplugMe]

Thanks for the help. I'm still concerned because last night I read a topic where someone talked about Google "locking down" a phone.

But I guess we'll risk it and order another phone. I don't think it was a malicious app, I was very careful and most came from my own phone which is still fine.

 

[lunatic59]

Google has no control over your phone although it can flag apps it identifies a malicious to untinstall as soon as you sync with the market.

There are security apps that you can set to do a remote wipe if you think your phone is lost or stolen, but you have to put them there. If you bought the phone 2nd hand, it is very possible that an app like that was installed and perhaps the authentication code being requested was for that app. If you can't enter it, it believes you are not the owner and wipes the phone. Just guessing here, BTW.

It could also have been a system update gone awry, although without a data plan I'd think an OTA would be unlikely unless you keep the phone constantly connected to wifi.

 

[UnplugMe]

Thanks. The phone is not supposed to be second-hand. I bought it through Amazon as New Unlocked, fulfilled by Amazon warehouse, but from an independent seller.

I didn't see any app on there that looks like what you mentioned. However, who knows.
There is always the possibility that the seller lied about it being new.