{"id":5206,"date":"2023-10-27T19:20:16","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T16:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/5206\/original_title-324\/"},"modified":"2023-10-27T19:20:17","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T16:20:17","slug":"original_title-324","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/?p=5206","title":{"rendered":"Watch out! These harmless-looking apps with 2 million installs are up to no good"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Watch out! These harmless-looking apps with 2 million installs are up to no good\u060c<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>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&#8217;t &#8216;only realizes this after an application has been downloaded several times.  that it is in fact malicious and should be removed. <\/div>\n<div>IT security solutions provider <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news.drweb.com\/show\/review\/?lng=en&amp;i=14767\">Dr.Web<\/a> has published a list of apps that are not what they seem and have been downloaded by over 2 million Android users (via <span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bleepingcomputer.com\/news\/security\/android-adware-apps-on-google-play-amass-two-million-installs\/\">Computer beeping<\/a><\/span>).<\/div>\n<p>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 <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/google\/\"   title=\"Google\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">Google<\/a> Chrome icon or by using a transparent icon image.  They run silently in the background and launch advertisements on your phone&#8217;s browser to generate revenue for their developers.  Here are their names:<\/p>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Super Skibydi Killer \u2013 1,000,000 downloads<\/li>\n<li>Agent Shooter \u2013 500,000 downloads<\/li>\n<li>Rainbow Stretch \u2013 50,000 downloads<\/li>\n<li>Rubber Punch 3D \u2013 500,000 downloads<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>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: <\/p>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Eternal Labyrinth (Yana Pospyelova) \u2013 50,000 downloads<\/li>\n<li>Jewels of the Jungle (Vaibhav Wable) \u2013 10,000 downloads<\/li>\n<li>Stellar Secrets (Pepperstocks) \u2013 10,000 downloads<\/li>\n<li>Fruits of Fire (Sandr Seville) \u2013 10,000 downloads<\/li>\n<li>Cowboy&#8217;s Frontier (Precipice Game Studios) \u2013 10,000 downloads<\/li>\n<li>Enchanted Elixir (Acomadyi) \u2013 10,000 downloads<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>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 <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/app\/\"   title=\"App\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">App<\/a> Store: <\/p>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Love Emoji Messenger (Korsinka Vimoipan) \u2013 50,000 downloads<\/li>\n<li>Beauty Wallpaper HD (fm0989184) \u2013 1,000 downloads<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<div>This is not the first and \u2013 much against our will \u2013 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.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Watch out! These harmless-looking apps with 2 million installs are up to no good\u060c 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&#8217;t &#8216;only realizes this after an application has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5207,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[106,454,3845,3846,1727,121],"class_list":["post-5206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-apps","tag-good","tag-harmlesslooking","tag-installs","tag-million","tag-watch"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5208,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5206\/revisions\/5208"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}