{"id":2501,"date":"2019-08-16T20:23:31","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T18:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dazzlepop.net\/site\/?p=2501"},"modified":"2019-08-16T20:23:33","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T18:23:33","slug":"8-million-android-users-tricked-into-downloading-85-adware-apps-from-google-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dazzlepop.net\/site\/8-million-android-users-tricked-into-downloading-85-adware-apps-from-google-play\/","title":{"rendered":"8 million Android users tricked into downloading 85 adware apps from Google Play"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Dozens of Android adware apps disguised as photo-editing apps and games have been caught serving ads that would take over users\u2019 screens as part of a fraudulent money-making scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Security firm Trend Micro said it found<\/a> 85 individual apps downloaded more than eight million times from Google Play \u2014 all of which have since been removed from the app store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More often than not adware apps<\/a> will run on a user\u2019s device and will silently serve and click ads in the background and without the user\u2019s knowledge to generate ad revenue. But these apps were particularly brazen and sneaky, one of the researchers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t your run-of-the-mill adware family,\u201d said Ecular Xu, a mobile threat response engineer at Trend Micro. \u201cApart from displaying advertisements that are difficult to close, it employs unique techniques to evade detection through user behavior and time-based triggers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers discovered that the apps would keep a record when they were installed and sit dormant for around half-an-hour. After the delay, the app would hide its icon and create a shortcut on the user\u2019s home screen, the security firm said. That, they say, helped to protect the app from being deleted if the user decided to drag and drop the shortcut to the \u201cuninstall\u201d section of the screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese ads are shown in full screen,\u201d said Xu. \u201cUsers are forced to view the whole duration of the ad before being able to close it or go back to app itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the app unlocked, it displayed ads on the user\u2019s home screen. The code also checks to make sure it doesn\u2019t show the same ad too frequently, the researchers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worse, the ads can be remotely configured by the fraudster, allowing ads to be displayed more frequently than the default five minute intervals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trend Micro provided a list<\/a> of the apps \u2014 including Super Selfie Camera, Cos Camera, Pop Camera and One Stroke Line Puzzle \u2014 all of which had a million downloads each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Users about to install the apps had a dead giveaway: most of the apps had appalling reviews, many of which had as many one-star reviews as they did five-stars, with users complaining about the deluge of pop-up ads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google does not typically comment on app removals beyond acknowledging their removal from Google Play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2019\/08\/16\/android-users-tricked-adware-apps\/<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dozens of Android adware apps disguised as photo-editing apps and games have been caught serving ads that would take over users\u2019 screens as part of a fraudulent money-making scheme. Security firm Trend Micro said it found 85 individual apps downloaded more than eight million times from Google Play \u2014 all of which have since been removed from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":-1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-2501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-technology"],"yoast_head":"\nDazzlepop | 8 million Android users tricked into downloading 85 adware apps from Google Play<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazzlepop.net\/site\/8-million-android-users-tricked-into-downloading-85-adware-apps-from-google-play\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dazzlepop | 8 million Android users tricked into downloading 85 adware apps from Google Play\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dozens of Android adware apps disguised as photo-editing apps and games have been caught serving ads that would take over users\u2019 screens as part of a fraudulent money-making scheme. 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