# Phone Spyware -  How to detect/remove

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-spyware-how-to-detect-remove/828487>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 27, 2019, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-spyware-how-to-detect-remove/828487 "2019-01-27T17:28:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2019, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-spyware-how-to-detect-remove/828487/1 "2019-01-27T17:28:54Z")

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Been noticing a new pattern of phone harrassment recently. Once I pick up my phone and open an app I get a suspicious call. I’m pretty good at not clicking on links from unknown sources and deleting text from unknown sources. Still I may have opened one accidently in the recent past while deleting it or marking it as spam.

I’m using a Galaxy Note 8 from Verizon and have the latest updates installed. What is the latest bestest way to detect and remove malware/spyware/assholeware from an Android phone?

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**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-spyware-how-to-detect-remove/828487/2 "2019-01-29T19:18:49Z")

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Ugh!!

Here’s one site that seems reasonable (it mentions Malwarebytes which has a decent reputation).

Have you installed any software from any third party sites? If so, that’s a likely source of the problem; you will probably need to uninstall that. Ads are another source, and the occasional infected app shows up on the Google Play store as well, though I don’t know how common that is.

Do you have any third party launchers? I used to use Go Launcher and really enjoyed it, but its behavior became more and more annoying so I didn’t install it on my current phone. Malwarebytes occasionally flagged some of the Go Launcher themes as risky, as well, though I think those were false positives.

Good luck!!