A list of popular apps have been removed from the Google Play store as Android owners are being urged to delete them immediately.
Million people have downloaded the dangerous apps - guised as fitness, gaming or questionnaire apps - which trick users into fake rewards or clicking links that visit dodgy websites.
The most recent banned apps promised users rewards for staying active, as walking and exercising could earn them points. However, when people tried to cash out they were either blocked from claiming or asked to watch endless adverts with nothing in return.
Cybersecurity experts at Dr.Web flagged these apps, some of which already had millions of downloads before being booted from the Play store.
As reported by the Express, the apps that have recently flagged by the IT cybersecurity firm are:
- Lucky Step: Walking Tracker - 10 million downloads
- WalkingJoy: walking tracker - 5 million downloads
- Lucky Habit: health tracker - 5 million downloads
Despite being flagged for using the same tactics as the other two, Lucky Habit has not been removed from the app store at this time.
It comes after 10 more apps were also axed for the Google store, in this instance due to bad links that downloaded malware, or direct users to dodgy websites.
According to Dr.Web, these fake applications presented themselves as investing software, directories, questionnaires and addictive games. They are as follows:
- Golden Hunt - 100K downloads
- Reflector - 100K downloads
- Seven Golden Wolf blackjack - 100K downloads
- Unlimited Score - 50K downloads
- Big Decisions - 50K downloads
- Jewel Sea – 10K downloads
- Lux Fruits Game – 10K downloads
- Lucky Clover – 10K downloads
- King Blitz – 5K downloads
- Lucky Hammer – 1Kdownloads
All of these apps have already been removed from the Play Store, but if you have one of them on your device it should be deleted right away.
Detection statistics collected by Dr.Web for Android found that the activity of adware trojans and spyware increased in December 2022.
At the same time, they found many new threats on Google Play and among them were dozens of fake apps and trojans that subscribe victims to paid services.
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