We already know that most Android malware infections occur through Google Play . It’s just that users trust the official app store and they don’t hesitate to download any software from there. Google itself contributed a lot to this, broadly broadcasting the mantra that Google Play has less than 0.1% of malicious applications. But who cares how many of them, if the audience of the catalog is millions of times larger than that of any other site. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Google Play users have once again been fooled by imposing paid subscriptions to anything at an exorbitant price.
There are tons of malicious apps on Google Play that Google doesn’t even consider as such
How to transfer an app from Google Play from Android to Android
Kaspersky Lab experts have discovered an application on Google Play that pretends to be a client of one of the largest retail chains and offers to issue a bonus card in order to receive points for later use in the chain’s stores.
The app subscribes itself
Scammers offer apps with fake bonus cards that offer to subscribe
Of course, many register and do not even pay attention to the fact that they are offered to subscribe to a paid subscription, agreeing to the conditions put forward. The cost of such a subscription is 600 rubles per week. But, despite the high fees that are charged to users, this card does not give any privileges.
In fact, this is not a map at all. The application does not contain anything at all, except for the initial screen, which promises bonuses, and a built-in subscription tool. After the victim formalizes it, it is logical that he does not receive anything at all.
How Google Play differs from the Google Store and what you can buy there
And there were probably a lot of them. The total number of application downloads recorded by Kaspersky Lab exceeded 10,000. That is, if we assume that at least one in 10 people was attracted to the offer of fraudsters, the total income of cybercriminals turned out to be quite considerable.
Apparently, there was more than one such application. The cybercriminals have launched a massive fraudulent campaign to attract as many users as possible. After all, it is logical that some are interested in bonuses in Lenta, others in Metro C&C, and still others in Pyaterochka or Dixie.
Malicious Android Apps
It turns out that Google Play is the most common source of malicious software for Android.
Each category has its own application. But since not everyone was popular, it is rather problematic to determine the total damage that their creators caused. However, there is absolutely no reason to doubt that there were victims, and there were a lot of them.
What are Google Play Points , why you need it and how it works
The attackers have built an interesting strategy for distributing their applications. They got hold of the numbers of potential victims somewhere and organized the mailing of messages with links to their applications. A lot of people are running and downloading software, agree to subscribe, counting on getting bonus points, but what happens next – you yourself already know.
Kaspersky Lab experts recommend installing an antivirus as one of the preventive measures to protect against malware. But the irony is that, in fact, the application in question does not contain malicious code, and all its harmfulness lies in a subscription, to the registration of which the scammers are pushing their victims.
And no antivirus will detect this, so only Google is able to prohibit this practice. Apple, by the way, is already doing this, cleaning out applications with unreasonably high subscriptions from the App Store. In the meantime, the search giant has not taken up this, all that remains for you is simply not to click on the left links and not to agree to the registration of paid subscriptions. However, even if they agreed, they can always be canceled .
