Popup and/or virus on Moto G Power

[ceedee]

Moto G Power, Android 10

I picked up a messy “something” this week. Not sure if it’s a virus or just an annoying popup tempting me to press “ok.”

• run AV (multiple) apps and Malwarebytes - no hits
• removed a few apps that were recently updated, although none of them were suspicious (IMO)
• cleared Chrome data and cache (unfortunately, I can’t uninstall Chrome)
• rebooted phone

I’m a relatively-advanced user, and have tried all I can think of. Google searches did not turn up much on this. The only pattern I can see is that the popup seems to show up after the phone has been idle for a bit (still testing this). For instance, my phone seemed ok last night, but the screen image below was present when I picked up my phone this morning. I have not experienced the popup interrupting me while I’m using my phone.

Looking for ideas on next steps. Thanks.

[louisdi]

That’s till a Chrome pop-up and should have been resolved when you cleared the browser’s data. If you open Chrome, click the three dots on the top and select Settings and then touch Notifications and scroll down make sure that the sites listed under “Sites” are the ones you want to hear from and that masterhost.space is blocked (switch it to the left).

[ceedee]

Thanks @louisdi. All I have listed is google.com. I’ll monitor today.

[louisdi]

Looking at the image, the browser is actually at that website, so the pop-up is triggered by the website itself. Your phone just navigated to that site without you opening the browser?

Can you go to Settings on Chrome again and verify that “Google” is shown on Search Engine, the a little further down, touch “Homepage” and make sure it isn’t set to that site.

[ceedee]

Yes, it appears that it did. Another site showed up this morning. Something appears to be in control!

My “homepage” setting is off.

[ceedee]

Just let my phone sit for a bit. When I picked it up, I got a “your connection has been interrupted” message, then the pop up.

I think the connection message is legit (phone sleeps?), but it clears too fast for me to get more info.

Frustrating. Here’s a screenshot of the url:

[ceedee]

I may have found it. Fingers crossed. Barcode scanner app…recently updated (and subsequently deleted!) Here’s a recent comment: