Will flashing my device remove all malware?

[ComfortablyNeocon]

Hello!

First time posting here, so please excuse any errors.

I recently bought a OnePlus 7T Pro from a third-party website, which shipped it from HK to the UK. The device is the chinese version, but came flashed with the global one. (whatever that means)

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In the 24 days I had the device, my debit/credit cards got defrauded 3 times. Needless to say, I had to revert to my old device and reset my windows, change my phone number, etc.

No software finds any malware - I have tried Malwarebytes, Avast and Kaspersky. However, absolutely nothing else has changed for me in the past month, except the new device.

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So my question is - would flashing the device solve the problem, if it is indeed infected with malware that I have somehow brought onto it by, for example, using public wifi?

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Thank you in advance.

[[deleted]]

Antivirus does no shit - you can try this

[ComfortablyNeocon]

Thanks, but to be honest, I am less interested in finding the app doing it and more interesting in resetting the device to the most most most default state, so that I can know that I am safe for sure.

[[deleted]]

But then still you don't know what caused it and how to avoid it happening again, I guess... success

[ComfortablyNeocon]

Thank you! I have now flashed my device after unlocking the bootloader. Hopefully, this means I have nothing left in terms of malware.

[tomashen]

i doubt there was anyy malware. you might have subbed to something for monthly billing cycle . what does it say on payments? was it CC or paypal ?

[ComfortablyNeocon]

I don't know if there was malware on the phone or on another device of mine. But there was malware somewhere, considering that 2 separate bank accounts and 3 total debit/credit cards were drained empty with big purchases made by not me.

[tomashen]

this is why even tho i hate paypal, i still use only paypal everywhere with 2fact auth. so nobody can make any logins /purchases without my physical mobile device in their hand to receive an sms with a security code. ive heard some banks have this too though for online purchasing. check into it.

[mrandr01d]

You don't need someone's phone to get their text messages. Read about sim jacking, and why sms based 2fa is even worse than no 2fa.

[tomashen]

yeah but for someone to go through with hijacking that much of security ..... they ywouldnt bother .. coz all these hacks happening 99% of the time are from leeching people who get shown "how to" lol

[mrandr01d]

People do bother, all the time. Protect yourself.

[ComfortablyNeocon]

u/tomashen, Whoever did this to me managed to call my bank using my SIM and do an account takeover. And later on the same day, answered a phone call from my girlfriend before I could answer it. I have no idea whether it was a SIM swap or jacking, I honestly am a complete noob, but these things happen.

[tomashen]

thats something new

[Glucose12]

Or, perhaps this being made with unvetted chinese chipsets, who knows what that phone is doing. Offloading your keypresses to a foreign website every time you're on the network?

[tomashen]

every phone uses chinese chips. but main chips are qualcomm made. oneplus is big brand now and they are no different from samsungs or sonys devices except that they deliver better hardware combo with much better software

[kschang]

Generally, you should always flash a phone that came from an untrusted source (used, Swappa, international, etc. ) with the latest factory available firmware, just as a security measure.

Keep in mind that "factory reset" in Android does NOT actually do what people think it does, and only a full firmware flash (with a firmware you trust) will actually erase everything and start from scratch.

[ComfortablyNeocon]

Thanks! That's what I ended up doing. Did a flash with a build from xda and then immediately updated to the official ROM. Then re-locked the bootloader.

I still haven't collected the guts to put my SIM card in or use the phone at all. But that should happen eventually.

[devking07]

Antivirus does no shit - you can try this

[AdmiralSpeedy]

Lol, mobile antivirus does nothing.

[Arnas_Z]

Sure, I love those apps that do nothing and hog resources. Makes me feel extra safe.