Android antivirus- is it needed?

[Lance]

How does that work then? Are we talking dodgy links that people click exclusively? And how can they infect your device?

exactly that. Or attached files.
Coupled with the fact that Android is tulip. And out of date Android is even more tulip. (ALWAYS UPDATE EVERYTHING).

It's how ISIS were hacked by the CIA pretending to be 13 year old virgins looking for a hero.

[jayn200]

You could receive a file to open that may install something in the background without you necessarily spotting it, or a prompt may display that looks legit at quick glance that installs something if you don't pay proper attention.

It's very similar to how naff stuff gets installed on PCs - it took me ages to teach my Dad not to click 'OK' to everything that popped up on screen; I suspect a less savvy mobile user could be similarly caught out.

There use to be a setting you had to turn on to install apps directly from APKs without going through Play Store but I think it's gone now (stupid as it would prevent this sort of thing for 95% of users)

[BigDataPro]

There use to be a setting you had to turn on to install apps directly from APKs without going through Play Store but I think it's gone now (stupid as it would prevent this sort of thing for 95% of users)

It is still there. Unless you enable 'Developer Options' by clicking buildnumber 'n' number of times, it is disabled by default. This prevents any one by accidentally enabling it with a touch. That means by default you cannot install apps with APKs.