Suspicious Notification Icon

[Puccini]

A suspicious notification icon in the form of a red star popped up on my phone with Android 2.2 (Froyo) today, seen at the top left of this photo:

Dragging the icon down led to this display:

This icon is not explained in the user guide. Was it Sunrise, my mobile carrier, who sent me that message? I was afraid I might download a trojan, tapped on "Clear" and this got rid of the icon.

[Phil Conners]

Yes that looks a little dodgy. Could perhaps have been triggered as an install by a website or sent by your carrier. Did you try to call and ask them?

[Puccini]

No, I didn't think of calling them. I'm not interested in games anyway. If it happens again, I will email them with photos of the screen.

[Phil Conners]

I didn't mean to suggest you'd be interested in games, just that it would be nice to understand where it came from, and if it came from the ISP, ask them to stop sending you spam.

[Puccini]

No, I didn't take it that way. Mentioned it only by way of explanation why I deleted it right away, without inquiring with my carrier. Got another red-star notification today, this time about a "Love Calculator", which is confirmation that it is spam or worse, malware.

[Puccini]

This is the notification I got today:

I see the red star notification discussed here: http://boardreader.com/thread/Star_Notification_Advertisements_6upzyX782h.html

I installed, tested and uninstalled three Mahjong apps yesterday, but I thought that was after I got the first red star notification. I'm sure I checked and verified that none of these apps asked for permission to access the Internet. I'll try to find some more about it on the web.

[Puccini]

1. Nothing unusual in “Running services”
   
2. Apps updated on 2011-06-04
   -- Blogger-droid
   -- My Tracks
   -- Barcode Scanner
   
3. I ran the Barcode Scanner just now and the Market page of Cards & Casino displayed. Closed it, ran it again, and it opened normally
   
4. About two weeks ago, I enabled Applications > Unknown sources. Disabled it now.
   

[Puccini]

From http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-incredible-general-discussions/148607-zoosk-dating-service-notification-bar.html

Originally Posted by reusables:

I was able to identify the problem. I've been using Gadget Bytes for a few months. Apparently, they added a "new" feature that was dropped into my phone on the last auto update.

The Dating Service adds that were being dropped into my notification bar on a daily basis were being generated by them (others had left reviews stating the same). This is very unethical and scarey. A trusted app developer allows you to download an app. Down the road, he introduces a spam program during an update. Of course, most people (including me) suspected new downloads. I ran Norton and Lookout and neither program could find the problem.

Stay away from Gadget Bytes...he could have dropped in spyware.

Posted by nygiants11991:

How were you able to identify the problem? It is getting annoying to have these white stars with a red dot in the middle on my phone daily.

Posted by reusables:

Open your notification bar. Select the star...before it redirects you to your browser, it briefly shows you the name of the app it's associated with. It happens fast, but you'll eventually see it, even if it takes you a couple of days. Don't forget to leave a very negative review on the apps Market page to warn others.

Knowing now that it is just spam, not a trojan or other malware, I clicked on the notification and in my case it is Blogger-droid doing it. I'll try to film this with tomorrow's message, before I uninstall Blogger-droid.

[lomatopo]

Android 'Market' app --> Settings --> Google AdMob Ads Preferences --> Uncheck 'Receive interest-based ads' option

Most custom ROMs also have built-in ad blocking.

[Puccini]

So that's how to stop this spam. Thank you.

[Puccini]

I promised you a video and here it is:

Between 0:06 and 0:07 the app responsible for this spam is displayed briefly near the top of the screen:

I have now unistalled Blogger-droid by Anders Hedström and installed Blogger by Google Inc instead.