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Possible malicious SG ad.

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elyucaye

I have suddenly been getting the below message while surfing SG on my mobile phone, especially when I click on giveaways or try to view the forums.

The page at "http://lovelinks.us" says:
Warning!!!
Your APP store need update immediately.

Hitting OK or the Back button force-starts a download of a shady apk file, which I cancelled immediately.

Not the first time I have seen this ad, but it has never started downloading something without my consent here.

10 years ago*

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4 Comments
TheIronicGamer

I just got a similar message to this when clicking on this page. I didn't click Ok though so don't know what happens.

10 years ago
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trustnoone

Odd, I was thinking OP may have accidentally installed something earlier that may have made this happen, but if other people are having it as well then it most likely is the page. These adds are the worse personally, malicious or not, asking you to install an app claiming that your store needs an update is definitely dodgy. Hopefully those adds gets removed soon :).

10 years ago
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Chirimorin

An APK file is basically an installer for an app.
If the google play store (it won't be called app store, every) needs updating, it'll ask to update when you boot it. Then it can update itself most likely (trusted source, just like the play store can install other apps)

Android also has a protection, you cannot install apps (even with apk files) without explicitly giving your device permission to do so.
If you did give permission, you most likely know it's a fake. If you didn't give permission, the device will refuse to install it.

If you don't run android, the APK file will be useless anyway since it's an android binary.

tl;dr: even if it's malicious I doubt they will actually hit a lot of people due to protections.

Also, please remove the link from the OP. Or at least mask some of the characters to prevent people from mindlessly going there.

10 years ago
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Pixieking

"Android also has a protection, you cannot install apps (even with apk files) without explicitly giving your device permission to do so.

If you did give permission, you most likely know it's a fake. If you didn't give permission, the device will refuse to install it."

Whilst that's technically true, anything installed on the Amazon App Store requires this security feature to be turned off. So there's probably a lot more people than you realise out there with their permissions changed.

10 years ago
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Closed 10 years ago by elyucaye.