As many as 38 Android apps containing malicious ads were discovered and removed from the Google Play Store

The malicious apps discovered by cybersecurity firm WhiteOps displayed out-of-context ads, redirected users to out-of-context URLs, and were difficult to remove once installed

WhiteOps' investigation described the app as a "fraudulent practice that displayed fraudulent ads on users' devices" and stated that the app had garnered over 20 million downloads in total

The app was disguised as a beauty app for taking and editing selfies In reality, it was "nearly impossible" to remove the app because it spammed users with ads, launched a website, and removed the app's icon from the app list; WhiteOps posted a complete list of bogus beauty apps online

The first app was discovered in January 2019, and several more were released in the following months and removed from the Play Store by Google, but drew massive interest from users

"Since that first app was published, the scammers have been publishing a new app on average every 11 days And on average, these apps were pulled from the Play Store after 17 days," the WhiteOps researchers wrote in their report [These numbers tell a tale of a cat-and-mouse game in which the Play Store is keeping scammers in check by hunting them down and removing scam apps as soon as they are discovered But even though the apps have been on the Play Store for an average of less than three weeks, they have found users"

Within months, Google removed 21 rogue apps from the same threat factor However, cyber fraudsters resorted to simply updating their methods to publish more apps and make them harder for Google to detect, bringing the total to 38 15 batches of apps published since September 2019 were all much slower in removal speed using those new techniques There was no change"

To identify fraudulent apps, the researchers recommend asking Android users the following questions: