Google removed these 30+ Android apps from Play Store, you should too
New malicious Android apps were recently discovered and deleted from the Google Play Store.
Google Play Store has been home to several malicious apps and as part of a new discovery, more such apps have been found on Google's app store. As discovered by cybersecurity firm WhiteOps, more than 30 popular Android apps have been detected with malware in them that can cause security issues for users. Read on to know more about these apps.
Delete these 30+ popular Android apps to remain safe
As per the research, the malign Android apps are mostly beauty and cameras apps and have garnered around 20 million downloads in totality on the Google Play Store. The apps have now been removed from the Play Store. The Android apps come with malware and come with a number of ads, mostly fraudulent ones. The apps would indulge users with out-of-context ads, out-of-context navigation, and even removed the app icons from the home screen or the apps folder so that users just can't remove them.
WhiteOps' blog post reads, "What these apps all have in common—besides their fraudulent tactics—is their focus on beauty. Most purport to be selfie apps that add beauty filters to users’ pictures, while at the same time showing ads out of context and making it nearly impossible to remove the apps themselves."
It is further suggested that the cybercriminals behind these group of apps launched a new app every 11 days, which were then taken down after 17 days. Despite the short period of listing on the Play Store, the apps gathered an average of 565,833 installs. Furthermore, hackers would remove/add fraudulent app codes to the app to avoid suspicion.
The apps would also contain DEX files in their APKs in the form of packers to avoid the Google Play Store and researchers detect them. Here is a list of the 38 fraudulent apps that were recently removed from the Google Play Store:
- Yoriko Camera (1,00,000)
- Solu Camera (5,00,000)
- Lite Beauty Camera (1 million)
- Beauty Collage Lite (5,00,000)
- Beauty and Filters camera (1 million)
- Photo Collage and beauty camera (1,00,0000)
- Gaty Beauty Camera (5,00,000)
- Pand Selife Beauty Camera (50,000)
- Cartoon Photo Editor and Selfie Beauty Camera (1 million)
- Benbu Seilfe Beauty Camera (1 million)
- Pinut Selife Beauty and Photo Editor (1 million)
- Mood Photo Editor and Selife Beauty Camera (5,00,000)
- Rose Photo Editor and Selfie Beauty Camera (1 million)
- Selife Beauty Camera and Photo Editor (1,00,000)
- Fog Selife Beauty Camera (1,00,000)
- First Selife Beauty Camera and Photo Editor (5 million)
- Vanu Selife Beauty Camera (1,00,000)
- Sun Pro Beauty Cameraa (1 million)
- Funny Sweet Beauty Camera (5,00,000)
- Little Bee Beauty Camera (1 million)
- Beauty Camera and Photo Editor Pro (1 million)
- Grass Beauty Camera (1 million)
- Ele Beauty Camera 1 million Flower Beauty Camera (1,00,000)
- Best Selfie Beauty Camera (1 million)
- Orange Camera (5,00,000)
- Sunny Beauty Camera (1 million)
- Pro Selfie Beauty Camera (5,00,000)
- Selfie Beauty Camera Pro (1 million)
- Elegant Beauty Cam 2019 (50,000)
You can have a look at the remaining apps from
If you have any of the aforementioned apps, it's best to remove from your Android smartphone now.
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