Securing phone?

[Hadden]

What do you suggest as free mobile antivirus?
I received strange SMS from never asked premium services: first from SLELX and second from MUSIC-BOX.
Months ago I received a "code number" for use in IMO - a service like whatsapp/telegram.
But it wasn't asking money, at least
Honestly, I don't know if it is a malware or if someone used my phone number to register there. They say to send an SMS to X number to stop the service, but actually I guess it's a double scam: if you send an sms, you are activated to their service; if you don't, you "only" are in a phishing list.
Funny fact: in the message is linked also a WAP site/service. In 2017!
Luckily, I don't use any credit card on phone.
Nougat 7.1.1 / unrooted phone (xperia compact).
Phone works normally. No slowdowns, no ads seen.

Any tip is welcome. I didn't remove anything yet to do this in the better way

 

[kamla5abi]

i get random phishing texts here and there too
i dont worry about it, they are probably just going thru all possible number combinations via server not physically typing in every text/phone #
ex, 204-280-0001, 204-280-0002,....etc...
as long as you dont reply OR click any links in the messages, you are safe
AND...i wouldn't even open them in my SMS app (in case theres some new exploits out there like stagefright etc ) that give you trouble even if you only open the sms and read it...just ignore and delete

I found a zemana mobile giveaway in the giveaways forum here, so i installed that
i think i read a later post by someone in one of the threads that it still worked recently...maybe search for that and try the code too

i'm looking for a good adblocker, if you use firefox mobile you can use ublock origin but it doesnt work for chrome on android sounds like. Not in the play store have to go to dev's site to download it.
Adguard keeps getting recommended by people on reddit
adaway or something like that if you will root your phone
xda forums are good place to look for good android apps (and find threads about them like if they are any good etc) that may not be on play store since google doesn't seem to like having adblockers in the play store...seen some reports that google takes down some adblock apps from play store...maybe if they work on chrome mobile....since i've seen adblockers for samsung browser in play store. But be careful and research the app before you install it. Since it will ask for many permissions probably for the adblocking to work, doesn't matter if your phone isnt rooted, if you give the app permissions and it has malware inside...it'll have free reign since you already allowed it yourself so it doesn't need to use any exploits etc to run )

 

[Hadden]

Well, usually I precheck them (when are in apk format) with virustotal, but on mobile I feel it gives a lot of false positives - aggressive ad platform are marked as virus/trojan (a lot of clean apps use safe but aggressive ads). And it's slow to scan a single file.
I'll give a look to Zemana mobile
I won't reply to any doubt sms, but as I use a lot of apps, the time to have a bit of security on phone is come. MMS are already off in SMS apps and OS was patched via OTA.

According to Zemana my phone is clean, according to VirusTotal I've 4 virus and 6 risky apps.
Well, I'll remove anyway some of the app VT detected - probably seen as risky by some heuristic system as they use a lot of permissions.