A Little Girl Reported Hidden Scam Apps to Google

A girl from Prague, Czech Republic, recognized 7 Scam apps from Google Play Store and App store and reported to google. There are more than 2.4 Million downloads of these scam apps, and the app owners are making a net amount of 3.7 crores as per the report of sensor tower.

These apps are regular Adware scams that attract mainly the millennials who fall for colorful wallpapers, themed keyboards, and all. And even these apps are promoted by some Tik Tok users and Instagram influencers.

These kinds of promotions drastically increased the downloading rate of these scam apps. These apps remain hidden in the Play Store and App Store. When we download these apps, the purpose of the apps like a theme, wallpaper with music is served, and the app remains hidden even on our screen, making it impossible to uninstall the app.

These scam apps will unnecessarily make the popup ads without even using the app or doing some important work. Even some apps have hidden trojans in it, which is a threat to Android or iOS.

This little girl from Prague, Czech Republic, reported a Tik Tok profile promoting such Scam apps to Avast’s Be Safe Online project. The project is to educate children about online scams and safety measures to be taken while using online apps.

In regards to this incident, Avast replied, “The apps display ads intentionally, or charge their users between 2-10 USD. The apps either provide a simple game that just causes the device to vibrate, change in wallpapers, or music. Some of the apps occur as Hidden Ads trojans”.

Soon after recognizing this Adware Scam, Avast’s research team informed Google and Apple about these Scam apps. Google responded immediately and took the necessary actions by removing those apps from the Play Store. Whereas Apple has not yet responded, there is no modification of these scam apps in its App Store.

We appreciate the young girl who reported the Tik Tok profile to us. It is mainly concerned about the apps are being promoted on social media platforms popular among younger kids, who may not aware of the red flag surroundings and those apps, may fall for them,” informed Jakub Vávra, threat analyst at Avast.

It is really an awakening for all smartphone users that, too, in this Pandemic time where even kids are using it for online classes, etc., these apps mainly targeted kids who can be easily lured when said by a Tik Tok user or influencer.