• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Advertise With Us
  • Contact
  • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy statement (CA)
    • Cookie policy (CA)
    • Privacy statement (UK)
    • Cookie policy (UK)
    • Privacy statement (US)
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
    • Privacy statement (EU)
    • Cookie policy (EU)
    • Disclaimer

TechWalls

Technology News | Gadget Reviews | Tutorials

  • Reviews
  • Tech News
  • Tech Guide
  • Gadget & Apps

Hundreds of thousands of bogus apps spotted on Google Play Store

Updated on Jul 19, 2014 by Guest Authors

The existence of fake apps on app stores such as Google Play, Apple App Store and Windows Phone App Store is not an unusual fact of the mobile world. What’s new, however, is the volume by which these bogus items have grown. According to Trend Micro, fake apps now clone 77 percent of the total apps on Google Play alone.

Researchers from Trend Micro disclosed that the fake apps are unmistakably being portrayed as the legitimate ones but actually work to scrape off user data of Android users. How did Trend Micro find out about their existence? The researchers headed to the top 50 free apps in the Play Store and checked to see whether other versions of those apps could be found on the app store. It turned out to be the case after a quick search.

fake-android-apps

There could be no doubt that the phony apps look pretty much like the legit ones based on its appearance, function, and even user reviews and ratings. The only difference is that those apps are embedded with malicious payloads that are designed to harm your mobile phone and steal perhaps your banking credentials stored on your device.

Read also: Avoid these Android apps to save your phone from being locked for ransom

And regarding the reviews and the supposed number of downloads, they were actually perpetrated by botnets. Trend Micro studied these apps for almost five years and found that developers of the fake apps did their job without much difficulty in cloning the legit items. It further discovered that nearly 900,000 of apps in Google Play Store are fake and more than 50 percent of those tend to be malicious or harmful to devices on which they could potentially be installed.

One of the kind of apps that account for the larger part of those fake apps replicates antivirus software tools. So users who could be lured into downloading those apps with the hope of protecting their smartphones or tablets from malware are actually inviting the danger. These apps go on with their usual trick of asking for administrator rights on the phone in order to dig deeper into the enclaves of the machine and steal sensitive data. And their developers charge users of fees for the fake app.

Fake apps are usually spotted on third-party app stores, which is why the iOS ecosystem bans those kinds of apps. It is alarming that those malicious apps have now found their way through Google Play Store, the largest storehouse of mobile apps – more than 1.2 million – and which claims the largest number of users.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. The commission help keep the rest of my content free, so thank you!

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Footer

SwitchBot Lock Review – Perfect Smart Lock for Renters

BREEZOME JH03 vs JH04 Air Purifier – Which One Should You Buy?

SwitchBot Curtain Smart Electric Motor Review – The Upgraded Version

COLORWING M08F Portable Thermal Printer Review – Requiring No Ink, Toner, or Ribbon

Follow TechWalls

YoutubeFacebookTwitterInstagram

Recent Posts

  • Premiere of the Demo of “EVOLUTION”, Tencent’s First Native Cloud Game, Leading Us to Set Off to the Real World Together
  • VANKYO Leisure 495W and Leisure 470 Pro Projector – New Full-HD Projector Series
  • SwitchBot Lock Review – Perfect Smart Lock for Renters
  • BLUETTI Father’s Day Deals – Power Gears for the Best Dad in the World

Copyright © 2022 · All Rights Reserved