Suspect Samsung phone, hard to really "wipe" it clean?

[Spinnor]

My wife got a nice new used phone from a friend for me. Being paranoid I don't trust the phone. Google tells me that a factory reset will not necessarily rid the phone of possible evil malware. Further Google tells me there is a process "flash a new image on my phone bootloader mode" that should rid the phone of possible evil but it seems complicated. Anyone ever do such a thing and is it a hard process. One of the steps seems to rely on a third party app which seems like a non-starter to me (no trust, I do trust Samsung's website though).

My Galaxy S9 works great but the S22 ultra seems worth the work to wipe it clean.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Tom.G]

Here in the US, there are retail stores that sell cell phones of various brands. If you are in the US, find one that sells your make and, walk in & request they do it.
If they mess up, it is their problem as much as yours!

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Spinnor]

Here in the US, there are retail stores that sell cell phones of various brands. If you are in the US, find one that sells your make and, walk in & request they do it.
If they mess up, it is their problem as much as yours!

Cheers,
Tom

The paranoid in my head says they will install their own malware.

 

[Rive]

Anyone ever do such a thing and is it a hard process.

Well, not really. It's just not familiar, for most people. Also, not always possible, sadly.

And, TWRP is considered fine. (Considerably more fine than the usual packages of bloatwares.)

 

[Spinnor]

It should be easy to 100 percent clean your phone, I will grant you a reset probably gets you pretty close and is simple. My current phone was bought used through a 3rd party, it might have yuk in it? Maybe just a matter of taking it as a challenge and get to it. Thank you.

 

[Tom.G]

The paranoid in my head says they will install their own malware.

Well, then don't drink that lemonade.

I guess you'll just have to brew your own.

Have Fun!