Dozens of adware Android apps disguised as photo editing software and games were discovered by Trend Micro researchers. In total, experts identified 85 applications used to fraudulently earn money by displaying advertising content. The apps mentioned have been downloaded from the Play Store more than 8 million times. To date, the applications reported by Trend Micro have already been removed from Google's digital content store.
Most often, advertising applications run on the user's device in the background and display advertising content, causing automatic clicks. However, the fairly impressive list of applications discovered this time included software that was more creative.
Trend Micro says that the adware apps not only displayed advertisements that were difficult to close, but also had some protection against detection and removal. After installation on the user's device, the application was inactive for some time. After about 30 minutes, the application icon on the desktop was replaced with a shortcut. This means that even if the user moves annoying software to the trash, it will not be deleted, since only the shortcut will be removed from the desktop. Advertising content was shown in full screen mode, and users, unable to close it, were forced to watch all the videos to the end. The report said that most often the advertisements were shown at five-minute intervals.
Trend Micro provided Google with a full list of identified fraudulent apps, including Super Selfie Camera, Cos Camera, Pop Camera and One Stroke Line Puzzle, some of which have been downloaded more than 1 million times. It is also noted that many of the applications in question had a lot of negative user reviews and ratings. Users complained about a large amount of advertising content.
Source: 3dnews.ru