McAfee security researchers discovered dozens of Android apps infected with malware on the Google Play Store.
Researchers report that applications were infected with the malicious Android / Clicker.G that seems to be targeting only Russian-speaking users.
Most of these applications had more than 5.000 downloads, some of them gained very good reviews.
As soon as these apps came into Android devices, the security company reported that malicious software was waiting for up to six hours before some malicious behavior was triggered.
McAfee classifies it Android / Clicker.G like adware, and researchers report that every two minutes, the malware pops up one emerging window with annoying advertisements or prompts users to download a system update or other applications from service update-SYS-android[.]Com.
The scammers behind this malware they did not bother to cover their intentions, because the security researchers who checked the source code of these applications report that the malicious payload was not encrypted to protect it from prying eyes.
All apps appear to have been uploaded to the Google Play Store recently, and some have been submitted by a user named goasez.
McAfee did not say how the scammers managed to circumvent the app review process by Google and the Bouncer scanner, but the company immediately reported all the apps it found infected with Android / Clicker.G.
So at the moment goasez's profile on Play Store does not contain apps, which means Google has removed them.