Google downloads 29 Android photo apps for scams

Google has withdrawn 29 Android apps from the Play Store for stealing photos and promoting fraud. Some of them have millions of downloads. See the list if you have downloaded any of them and if so delete it immediately.

Google still faces malicious Android apps that manage to slip out of the Play Store despite improvements has done recently in the security code.

Εν προκειμένω, η εταιρεία απέσυρε πρόσφατα από το Play Store 29 εφαρμογές για κάμερες και φωτογραφίες αφού κατέστη σαφές ότι προορίζονταν να προωθήσουν ενοχλητικές διαφημίσεις, απατεώνες και ακόμη να κλέψουν περιεχόμενο. Οι εφαρμογές αυτές προωθούσαν διαφημίσεις πλήρους οθόνης, συμπεριλαμβανομένης της πορνογραφίας, ενώ μερικές εξ αυτών εκτελούσαν απάτες ηλεκτρονικού “ψαρέματος” (Phishing) to steal your personal information under the guise of contests.

Another group of photography applications claimed that it could beautify your photos, but in reality it just stole the photos you were uploading.

According to Trend Micro, applications used multiple aka packers to prevent analysis, as well as deep encryption for remote servers. There is also the possibility that you will find it difficult to delete them.

The problem is that these apps were quite popular before Google removed them. In total, 11 of the apps have been downloaded more than 100.000 times, and three of them more than a million times, which means that the victims are many.

And as we've said before, since Google can't find a way to catch these apps in their infancy, for every application that you download you should monitor it and keep an eye out for suspicious activity.

The list of malicious Android applications is as follows: