u/Felandrien

Am I Overreacting for panicking after clicking on a phishing link?

Hi all!

A regular paranoid mistake-maker here!

I kindly request some help identifying whether I should factory-reset my phone.

I have no experience in cyber-security and would love for someone to help me calm down. I feel like I am severely overreacting.

This is the situation:

This morning I got an email that somebody tried to access one of my accounts.

As a complete blithering idiot, I clicked on the big button i should not press without checking the sender, which clearly ended up being a fake account.

The link opened, routing me through some sql link to a sketchy crypto-newswebsite.

I identified no pop-ups that asked for permissions, no pop ups that mentioned an ongoing download and no pop ups that said my phone was in danger or anything stupid

I immediately closed the website and did the following things:

- Shut down WIFI and Mobile Data

- Scanned my phone using MalwareBytes and Google Play Protect (no threats found)

- Checked my internal downloads folder, my FireFox downloads folder and my Chrome downloads folder (I found no new downloads or apks that were installed)

- Started up internet again

- Updated my MalwareBytes threat detection

- Scanned my phone again using MalwareBytes and Google Play Protect (no threats found)

- Deleted my browsing history, my cookies and my cache for both Firefox and Chrome

I have the feeling that this is less of a concern than the pop-ups that I get when I watch anime streams. But I just wanted to make sure.

Can I feel safe opening my personal data apps again on my phone, or would you suggest a hard factory reset, just to be safe?

I haven't changed all my passwords yet, but I am inclined to at least change my email passwords just to be safe.

Kind regards,

A concerned user

reddit.com
u/Felandrien — 12 days ago