Watch out! These harmless-looking apps with 2 million installs are up to no good

Watch out! These harmless-looking apps with 2 million installs are up to no good،

When installing apps from the Google Play Store, we operate with the feeling that the Mountain View giant only hosts secure and verified apps on its official app market, but often the company doesn’t ‘only realizes this after an application has been downloaded several times. that it is in fact malicious and should be removed.

IT security solutions provider Dr.Web has published a list of apps that are not what they seem and have been downloaded by over 2 million Android users (via Computer beeping).

Four of the apps mentioned below are actually HiddenAds malware. In appearance, they look like games, but once you download them, they try to become invisible either by using the Google Chrome icon or by using a transparent icon image. They run silently in the background and launch advertisements on your phone’s browser to generate revenue for their developers. Here are their names:

Super Skibydi Killer – 1,000,000 downloads
Agent Shooter – 500,000 downloads
Rainbow Stretch – 50,000 downloads
Rubber Punch 3D – 500,000 downloads

The following group of apps are part of the FakeApp family and their goal is to trick users into investment scam websites. Here are a few:

Eternal Labyrinth (Yana Pospyelova) – 50,000 downloads
Jewels of the Jungle (Vaibhav Wable) – 10,000 downloads
Stellar Secrets (Pepperstocks) – 10,000 downloads
Fruits of Fire (Sandr Seville) – 10,000 downloads
Cowboy’s Frontier (Precipice Game Studios) – 10,000 downloads
Enchanted Elixir (Acomadyi) – 10,000 downloads

Many apps belonging to the famous Joker family have also been integrated into Google Play. The main goal of these apps is to trick victims into signing up for premium paid services. Here are some of the Joker family apps found on the App Store:

Love Emoji Messenger (Korsinka Vimoipan) – 50,000 downloads
Beauty Wallpaper HD (fm0989184) – 1,000 downloads

Fortunately, all the apps mentioned above have been removed by Google Play, but if you have already downloaded them, you will need to delete them from your phone. As a precaution, you may consider scanning your phone using Play Protect or a smartphone antivirus.

This is not the first and – much against our will – probably not the last time that harmful apps have been approved by Google Play. While downloading apps from a trusted source is a good first step, you should never let your guard down and inspect an app yourself before downloading it by going through user reviews and making sure the developer is trustworthy.