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I received a message with the famous link My-love co via Whatsapp and I never clicked on the link; I blocked the contact and deleted the message containing it; such a link was reported as infected by the newspapers.

Despite the fact that I didn't click on it, a strange icon with the profile picture and the name of the person who sent it to me appeared in my home. I reset my phone then and reinstalled WhatsApp by recovering the backup of the chats.

No traces of the infected link in there (because I deleted the message before resetting the phone), so I was no longer worried about it and I sent a message to the contact. After that, I blocked him again to avoid the possibility of other infected messages.

Today that strange icon with his name and profile picture appears again on my home. I cannot find it in the APPs list.

I never clicked on any link and I did hardware reset, so my questions is:

Why such a virus is there and why it's still there even after the hardware reset? Is it possible that the infected Whatsapp account is able to spread the trojan simply by being there in the contact list of my phone or because I opened his message (even if I didn't click on the link)? Or might my SIM card be virus-infected instead?

franz1
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because we don't fix virus infections here. The standard advice is to take it to a professional in person. – Ghedipunk Jan 07 '20 at 16:20
  • what if I edit the question and leave the 1) and 3) parts only? – franz1 Jan 07 '20 at 16:22
  • You are assuming that the "strange icon" is a virus ... It's a chat shortcut – schroeder Jan 07 '20 at 16:24
  • @schroeder I never added a chat shortcut... I supposed it because it's among the other apps in the home but it's not in the Settings-> App, and also because it has the name and profile picture of the person who sent the infected link to me... – franz1 Jan 07 '20 at 16:27
  • 1 is still off topic (we don't know why there is a virus on your device, and probably can't find out without physical access. (and indeed, we're pretty sure you don't have a virus)) 3 isn't off-topic _per-se_, but the question of what to do after being infected is very broad, somewhat opinion based, is subject to change over time, and very situation specific. To be treated properly, such an answer to question 3 would have to be quite exhaustive and general. – Ghedipunk Jan 07 '20 at 16:28
  • It won't be a separate listing in the apps, as I said. It's Whatsapp. However it got there, it's there. And it's not an indication of a virus. So the rest of your question is moot. You got a bad link which you did not click. You reset your device. Now you ask about risks. There is no indication that there is a risk... – schroeder Jan 07 '20 at 16:31
  • ok, sorry for the off-topic and thank you for the comments. I just read on line to be careful about strange icons appearing in the home and I was afraid that could be the case. Well then :) – franz1 Jan 07 '20 at 16:38

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