I am a long time user of Avast Anti-Theft for my mobile Android device. I have greatly enjoyed the product, and have had no problems at all, until recently.
About a week ago, I was overseas on a business trip to Italy. And while I was over there, multiple times, my phone locked me out, and the Avast lock screen appeared, saying that the device had been marked as “stolen”. I don’t know why. I did not remove the SIM card, nor did I issue any commands from another phone saying that it was stolen. Each time, I had to enter my Avast pin to unlock my phone. I’m not sure if it had something to do with the fact that I was roaming, or just in another country.
But, then recently, I also realized that during my time overseas, the application also sent out a whole bunch of strange text messages, that seem to be nothing but some strange sort of code that I don’t recognize. (See my attached photo). A lot of them went to people I have listed as “Friends”, and some also went to a strange number that begins with “01142072”.
Not only was this an inconvenience, but also given that I was roaming overseas, these text messages cost me 50 cents a piece. By my count, there were 67 of them, which ran up my phone bill by $33.50.
I am not happy about this at all. I would like to know first of all, why this happened, and how I can avoid it if I am overseas again. And also, I would appreciate it if there is some way that I can be compensated for this. I can certainly supply my phone bill and a list of the texts if need be.
I did already open a ticket, and am waiting to hear back, but just wanted to reach out to multiple sources regarding this issue. Thanks!