{Disarmed} Fake Android apps: delete them immediately before they steal your money!
Google Play can be a scary place - scammers and hackers lurk just waiting for you to download one of their fake apps. Google regularly removes such dangerous apps, but that doesn't mean that some of them haven't found their way onto a phone after all.
Cybersecurity software company Avast reported a scam campaign that has been going on for months. It's called UltimaSMS, and as the name suggests, fake apps are distributed to unsuspecting victims via SMS.
A total of 151 apps are part of the scam campaign, and the full list can be found here . The aim of the campaign is to sign up victims for expensive SMS services and divert money from their accounts.
As you can see from the list, some of these apps look completely harmless and can lead some people to believe that they are useful tools. If you have downloaded and installed one of these apps, they can read the location, the IMEI and the phone number of the phone to find out which country you are in. If you open one of the fake applications you will be asked to enter your phone number and / or email address.
The premium SMS service costs up to $ 40 per month and is billed weekly.
"The apps that were discovered are essentially structured identically, ie the same basic structure of the app is reused several times. These copies are disguised as real apps by well-constructed app profiles in the Play Store. The profiles feature memorable photos and enticing app descriptions, as well as often high rating averages. On closer inspection, however, general data protection declarations and simple developer profiles with general e-mail addresses can be found. They also tend to have numerous negative reviews from users who correctly identified the apps as a scam or fell for the scam, " said Avast.
To make matters worse, some of these apps have been distributed through popular social networks like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and others.
Sources):
Github
The post Fake Android apps: delete them immediately before they steal your money! first appeared on xiaomist's blog .
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