Help! Pop-up ads on my smart phone

[Trailrider1951]

For about the last month, I have been seeing pop-up ads for all kinds of things (Subway, pet insurance, etc.) on my android phone. This is the first smart phone I have owned and for the first six months or so, it was ad-free. The ads are very annoying and intrusive, and seem to come randomly, i.e., they appear when I'm trying to make a call, when I'm checking a local news app, when I'm visiting DU, etc. Some of them have sound, which blares music unexpectedly. WTF?? They seem to have taken up residence on my phone about the time I downloaded the instagram app, thinking that it would allow me to share photos more easily. I have since decided against using instagram, since anything uploaded to them becomes visible to everyone and his dog. No thanks! But, now I cannot delete the app! GRRRR. So, are these ads malware on my phone from downloading and app? How can I get rid of them? Thanks for any help you can give me.

[saidsimplesimon]

1. Take your phone to the local

office of your service provider. They should be willing to do a clean up without charge, if not let them know they have competition.

[Trailrider1951]

2. Thanks for that suggestion

My provider is Virgin Mobile USA. I don't think that they have stores, but I can contact them online for an answer. Thanks!

[demmiblue]

3. Found this in the comments section on YouTube:

i may have found something for this. i just tried it and i have not seen its results due to the recentness of this. try going into google chrome, which i assume you use, (if not try to do something similar) and click the three vertical dots to open the menu, click settings and scroll down to site settings. There should be something that says notifications, make sure that that is on 'Ask First' or 'Blocked' all together, then go down to pop-ups. Here is where i found that although pop-ups were blocked, a website i had visited or something i had clicked, had set itself to be an exception to the blockage of pop-ups. So even though it was blocked, they still appeared on my apps and homescreen. i deleted the exception for pop-up ads and left the setting on 'blocked'. Hopefully this is the resolution to your problem as well as my own.

[Trailrider1951]

4. Thank you so much!

I followed the trail to 'Ask First' and both Google and Yahoo were listed. When I did the "clear and reset" thing, Google stayed and Yahoo went away...F'ing Yahoo! Should have known.....I'll bet that that gets rid of the ads. Thanks again!