Hi! I'm a new person to these forums, and I joined them so I could find some help with a possible virus. I can't seem to find anything useful about it, or even really related, which is why I've come here. I have a MyTouch 4G, which is why I came to this particular place. I apologize if this is a bit long...
What happens is that:
First, sometimes when I turn on my phone after it has run out of batteries or has been otherwise shut off and then turned back on, or occasionally even just when I pull the screen down to unlock it, there will be anywhere from one to a whole page-full of apps I had never downloaded. They are usually on the main screen, but they sometimes appear on the screen to the far left, where occasionally I find it full of them. They're always things like "Zillow" and games like "Crime City" and then the vast majority end up being those creepy little "stalk your significant other" apps like "SpyOnHer". They only appear on the home screens and never in my pull-up app list. Next time they appear though I'm going to check the section where you can manage your apps in the settings. I usually just drag them into the trash can.
Now, I've seen a few pages where people have complained about one or two apps having downloaded themselves onto their phone, but the responses are always "Oh yeah, that's weird" or else "Those apps are legit and part of such-and-such thing and you're phone is perfectly fine". In those queries it's never the phone or carrier I have, and sometimes not even android and just a smartphone query in general, so I don't really know entirely what they're talking about and how correct those suggestions are. What I do know is that they seem to ignore in a few cases the fact that the apps mentioned downloaded themselves. I looked up the apps that were appearing on my phone and the names seem legit (if not creepy like in the many stalker apps that appear), and I don't doubt that the titles themselves are to worry about (though I don't want them...). I'm worried about how floods of apps are downloading and installing themselves onto my phone in rampant disregard to my interests and my phone's well being, and also that they're fake apps anyway and are viruses or some other type of malware.
Second, my phone's battery life has been acting oddly. I like to listen to music on my Media Player app that comes with the phone every night as I sleep. I've never had any problems before, and before these apps started mobbing my phone, I could go to bed with a fully charged or 75% charged phone at night and wake up with only about 30%-10% battery life drained (depending on if I remembered to make sure I closed out of the internet or facebook apps and only had the Media Player app running, and the phone back to its home screen). Now though, even with just having the Media Player running and nothing else, I find that my phone heats up very quickly when I use any app, and that the battery drains very quickly. I went to bed at 2 am once after chatting with some friends (who are two hours behind me), and as usual I started the Media Player to listen to music as I slept. I had thought I was accidentally laying on my phone and that with my additional body heat, my phone couldn't cool itself off properly. I placed it away from me, and slept so I wasn't near it enough to end up on it. It was still cool a few songs in, and I assumed my idea was correct and this was a good solution. I woke up at around 9:00, and to my surprise and pleasure, I could still hear music. My phone had not run out of batteries. However, when I went to pick it up to check its battery life, it was hot to the touch and was in the red, saying it had only 10% battery left. Another song later, it was reduced to 5%. This worried me, because it didn't make sense, and I had read that such things could mean there are hidden processes running on your phone. This is where I became pretty sure it was a virus.
There was one site that mentioned something very similar about my problem, but it used technical language (I'm not a very technical person with computers and phones and such) and was in response to a different carrier and phone. However, I decided to try and find it again to see if it could in any way be applied to my phone, but I can't find anything about it anymore. (I'm kind of kicking myself for not bookmarking it or something like I usually do for potentially useful things like that). I've even searched my history library for the link or the Google search that led to it, but it's not there either somehow. (I hadn't cleared it.)
It seems the only way I'll be able to find a solution to this is by asking if anyone has had such a problem as this before and if they know of a solution. Sorry if I had any irritable tone in this, but I am worried that even if it's "harmless" adware or something (the technical website didn't make it sound threatening or ominous and mentioned something about how some apps allow this to happen or something), that it could destroy my phone's battery or cause it to completely malfunction and permanently freeze. I would appreciate any help I could get, and thank you all for your time!
What happens is that:
First, sometimes when I turn on my phone after it has run out of batteries or has been otherwise shut off and then turned back on, or occasionally even just when I pull the screen down to unlock it, there will be anywhere from one to a whole page-full of apps I had never downloaded. They are usually on the main screen, but they sometimes appear on the screen to the far left, where occasionally I find it full of them. They're always things like "Zillow" and games like "Crime City" and then the vast majority end up being those creepy little "stalk your significant other" apps like "SpyOnHer". They only appear on the home screens and never in my pull-up app list. Next time they appear though I'm going to check the section where you can manage your apps in the settings. I usually just drag them into the trash can.
Now, I've seen a few pages where people have complained about one or two apps having downloaded themselves onto their phone, but the responses are always "Oh yeah, that's weird" or else "Those apps are legit and part of such-and-such thing and you're phone is perfectly fine". In those queries it's never the phone or carrier I have, and sometimes not even android and just a smartphone query in general, so I don't really know entirely what they're talking about and how correct those suggestions are. What I do know is that they seem to ignore in a few cases the fact that the apps mentioned downloaded themselves. I looked up the apps that were appearing on my phone and the names seem legit (if not creepy like in the many stalker apps that appear), and I don't doubt that the titles themselves are to worry about (though I don't want them...). I'm worried about how floods of apps are downloading and installing themselves onto my phone in rampant disregard to my interests and my phone's well being, and also that they're fake apps anyway and are viruses or some other type of malware.
Second, my phone's battery life has been acting oddly. I like to listen to music on my Media Player app that comes with the phone every night as I sleep. I've never had any problems before, and before these apps started mobbing my phone, I could go to bed with a fully charged or 75% charged phone at night and wake up with only about 30%-10% battery life drained (depending on if I remembered to make sure I closed out of the internet or facebook apps and only had the Media Player app running, and the phone back to its home screen). Now though, even with just having the Media Player running and nothing else, I find that my phone heats up very quickly when I use any app, and that the battery drains very quickly. I went to bed at 2 am once after chatting with some friends (who are two hours behind me), and as usual I started the Media Player to listen to music as I slept. I had thought I was accidentally laying on my phone and that with my additional body heat, my phone couldn't cool itself off properly. I placed it away from me, and slept so I wasn't near it enough to end up on it. It was still cool a few songs in, and I assumed my idea was correct and this was a good solution. I woke up at around 9:00, and to my surprise and pleasure, I could still hear music. My phone had not run out of batteries. However, when I went to pick it up to check its battery life, it was hot to the touch and was in the red, saying it had only 10% battery left. Another song later, it was reduced to 5%. This worried me, because it didn't make sense, and I had read that such things could mean there are hidden processes running on your phone. This is where I became pretty sure it was a virus.
There was one site that mentioned something very similar about my problem, but it used technical language (I'm not a very technical person with computers and phones and such) and was in response to a different carrier and phone. However, I decided to try and find it again to see if it could in any way be applied to my phone, but I can't find anything about it anymore. (I'm kind of kicking myself for not bookmarking it or something like I usually do for potentially useful things like that). I've even searched my history library for the link or the Google search that led to it, but it's not there either somehow. (I hadn't cleared it.)
It seems the only way I'll be able to find a solution to this is by asking if anyone has had such a problem as this before and if they know of a solution. Sorry if I had any irritable tone in this, but I am worried that even if it's "harmless" adware or something (the technical website didn't make it sound threatening or ominous and mentioned something about how some apps allow this to happen or something), that it could destroy my phone's battery or cause it to completely malfunction and permanently freeze. I would appreciate any help I could get, and thank you all for your time!
