Updates for Samsung scams for 10 millions of users

More than ten have been tricked into installing a fake Samsung app called “Updates for Samsung” that promises firmware updates but actually redirects users to a website that contains ads and charges for firmware downloads.

Ο Alexey Kuprin, a malware analyst at CSIS Security Group updated the Google Play Store , after publishing a for the behavior of the application.

Updates for Samsung

The application takes advantage of the difficulty in updating the firmware and operating system updates for Samsung phones, and so it seems that millions of people have installed it.

The "Updates for Samsung" application promises to solve this problem and especially novice users choose to install it so that they can receive frequent and easy firmware and OS updates.

But according to Kuprins, the app has nothing to do with Samsung, it only loads the domain updato [.] Com into a WebView component (Android browser).

In application reviews, you can see hundreds of users complaining that the site has infected their device with ads, while most say they can not find what they are looking for.

The site reportedly offers free and paid Samsung firmware updates, but after checking the app's source code, Kuprins discovered that it limits the free download speed to 56 KBps, and some of these downloads are not complete.

Of course, after the "unfortunate" free download, the application launches a package worth $ 34,99 so that users can download all the files.

Apart from the above, the application does not follow the rules of the Play Store and uses its own payment system, exposing users' data to third parties, since it does not use Google's protected payment channel.

We should mention that the app is not malware in the traditional sense of the word, as it does not perform malicious actions for of the user or without his consent. The best words to describe how it works are “scam”, or “adware”.

And with 10.000.000 facilities, the scam seems to be very successful.

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Written by giorgos

George still wonders what he's doing here ...

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