Samsung Dictionary Virus?

Soldato
Joined
5 Dec 2006
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15,370
I've noticed another virus apparently. When I highlight a word in chrome it brings up the usual copy paste etc but theres also an option called "dictionary", but when I tap it instead of using a simple dictionary it asks for permission to make some phone calls instead lol.

Does anyone who it wants to call for a dictionary definition? I'm guessing it's some scam which dials you through to a dictionary call centre and charges you £3 per word or something? Seems like a bizarre way to implement a dictionary.


So many viruses and malware on Samsung it's crazy.
 
Caporegime
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When you smoke so much weed everything makes you paranoid.

Why do Samsung need you to make premium rate calls when the NFC chip can just skim your card and send your bank details directly to them?
 
Soldato
OP
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When you smoke so much weed everything makes you paranoid.

Why do Samsung need you to make premium rate calls when the NFC chip can just skim your card and send your bank details directly to them?


What on earth are you talking about?

I don't think you understand what paranoia is, you need to study some basic psychology before you think you can qualify yourself to decide if someone is paranoid.

Paranoia is a high level function of the human mind, and a highly evolved function at that, the purpose of which is to keep you safe from potential danger. Nothing wrong with paranoia.

This permission request is actually real. Data collection is real. Profit and commercialisation of mass data is real. Premium rate telephone scams are real.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
5 Dec 2006
Posts
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When you smoke so much weed everything makes you paranoid.

Why do Samsung need you to make premium rate calls when the NFC chip can just skim your card and send your bank details directly to them?

What's really funny is you have ABSOLUTELY NO explanation of why a dictionary application would possibly need access to telephone permissions, yet you're quick to start calling people paranoid?

This is a technical area of the forum if you have no technical interest or knowledge (nor psychological expertise) and simply want to maintain a state of ignorance against the answering of my question then, you're a troll.
 
Soldato
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I think you should put the smartphone in the drawer and go back to a Nokia 3310.

Does this phone have a built in dictionary?

I mean I get your point but surely it's not asking for much to be able to have a dictionary app which isn't milking as much data as possible.

Absolutely everything is milking data for money nowadays. Heck MS basically gave away their whole OS for free (AND deployed it like a virus) because there's more money in personal data.
 
Associate
Joined
10 Nov 2013
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1,804
Well it behaves exactly like a virus.

As in its force installed, almost impossible to remove, collects data so someone can make money from your data.

Again, I refer you to my previous post - it's not a virus or malware. I'm surprised that someone in this technical area of the forum would want to maintain a state of ignorance about what is and isn't a virus :rolleyes:

I agree with you though that it doesn't seem reasonable for a dictionary to require permission to make calls, but that doesn't mean it's malware. One explanation online was that perhaps the app is targeting an older version of Android where the permissions were not as fine-grained as they are now. Seems unlikely if you have a newish phone though.
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Nov 2006
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2,864
Location
Shoeburyness,England
What's really funny is you have ABSOLUTELY NO explanation of why a dictionary application would possibly need access to telephone permissions, yet you're quick to start calling people paranoid?

This is a technical area of the forum if you have no technical interest or knowledge (nor psychological expertise) and simply want to maintain a state of ignorance against the answering of my question then, you're a troll.

Okay..I read that an app asking for phone permisson is for example -' You're accessing the app and you get a phone call ; if the app doesn't have phone permission you can't get the phone call..or the dictionary also includes a search on the phone which would include your contacts. a phone 'dictionary ' search.'
 
Caporegime
Joined
19 Apr 2008
Posts
26,249
Location
Essex
What's really funny is you have ABSOLUTELY NO explanation of why a dictionary application would possibly need access to telephone permissions, yet you're quick to start calling people paranoid?

This is a technical area of the forum if you have no technical interest or knowledge (nor psychological expertise) and simply want to maintain a state of ignorance against the answering of my question then, you're a troll.

Because you think the dictionary needs phone permissions to make calls to premium rate numbers to scam you out of money. You keep calling pre installed applications viruses or malware because you have no basic understanding of how they work.

Phone permissions are either blanket permissions for older versions of Android as mentioned above, or for reading the current phone state.

If you don't want to grant it permissions, don't.

Screenshot-20181028-000316-Package-installer.jpg


The phone tells you what it's for anyway.
 
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