Delete these Android apps before they slowly bankrupt you
While Android malware is by no means a novel threat for the billions of active users around the world, it really feels like the platform's security issues are only getting worse with time, as bad actors continue to improve their havoc-wreaking methods and Google is simply not doing enough to keep you protected.
Case in point, two of the latest malicious apps identified as such by Doctor Web's cybersecurity experts and tech news publication Bleeping Computer, which may have been allowed to steal money from up to a million people before ultimately being removed from the official Play Store.
Developed by the same undoubtedly phony company called "Tsaregorotseva", Top Navigation and Advice Photo Power were able to rack up 500,000+ and 100,000+ installs respectively, which is just unacceptable when you consider their predatory behavior.
Of course, a large part of the blame also lies with the users who failed to anticipate the menace even after strings of reviews highlighted the "total scam" and "fake advertisement" tactics pulled by at least one of the two apps in question.
Fake, fake, fake, and fake!
In short, both generically named and seemingly useful apps had the same insidious goal, subscribing users to bogus services without their approval or knowledge to swipe a few bucks (or euros, or pounds) off their bank accounts every week.
That can obviously add up to quite a bit of money after a while, so if the two aforementioned titles sound familiar, you might want to check your Android phones and hit uninstall as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, that's not everything Dr.Web's researchers found wrong with Google Play in January, with an assortment of other threats attempting (and, in many cases, presumably succeeding) in stealing personal information, passwords, phone numbers, and even Facebook accounts from a number of users that's impossible to estimate.
Naturally, the end game for the vast majority of these trojans was also money, with everything from bank accounts to credit cards and cryptocurrencies targeted using various deceptive mechanisms. Without going into a lot of detail, here are a few other apps you need to delete right away if you happen to find them on your Android devices:
- Up Your Mobile
- Morph Faces
- Power Photo Studio
- Launcher iOS 15
- Adorn Photo Pro
- Chain Reaction
- TOH
- Invest Gaz Incomes
- Gazprom Invest
- Gaz Investor
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Things that are NOT allowed: