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On Google Play, Android’s official app store, a new category of activity tracking applications has recently been a huge success, with over 20 million device downloads.
The application advertises itself as a health, pedometer, and good habit-building app, promising to randomly reward users for staying active in their daily lives or for achieving distance goals. increase.
However, Dr. Web Antivirus reports that rewards may not be redeemable or may be only partially available after forcing users to watch tons of advertisements.
Three notable examples from Dr. Web’s report are:
- Lucky Step – Walking Tracker – 10 million downloads
- walking joy – 5 million downloads
- Lucky Habits: Health Tracker – 5 million downloads
According to Dr. Web, all three apps communicate with the same remote server address, indicating a common operator/developer. All three are still available on Google Play at the time of writing.
The antivirus company says the app does not allow withdrawals before users have accumulated a significant amount of rewards. I promise you it will be released.
Even after watching a series of ads, the app is said to push even more ads to “speed up” the withdrawal process.
In addition to these indications, Dr. Web noted that in previous versions of Lucky Steps – Walking Tracker, users had the option to convert in-app rewards into gift cards that they could use to purchase goods in a physical online store. is reported to have provided
However, recent versions of the app have removed this feature from the options, so it’s not clear what the rewards can be converted into.
Some users on Google Play have left reviews that “Lucky Step – Waling Tracker” acts as an adware, loading full-screen ads when unlocking the screen and even overwriting the active window.
Another example of a similar app still available on Google Play is Wonder Time, a rewards app that has amassed 500,000 downloads.
The app promises to reward real money for completing various tasks such as installing additional applications and games.
However, the tokens users receive for each action are negligible compared to the minimum revenue withdrawal threshold set by the developer.
fishing game
In the same report, Dr. Web warned that phishing apps masquerading as investment apps and games were discovered on Google Play and had over 450,000 downloads.
When the app starts, it connects to a remote server and receives a configuration that tells it what to do. The procedure typically involves loading a phishing page that prompts the user to enter sensitive information.
Malicious gaming apps Dr. Web has identified include:
- golden hunt – 100,000 downloads
- reflector – 100,000 downloads
- seven golden wolf blackjack – 100,000 downloads (still on Google Play)
- unlimited score – 50,000 downloads
- big decision – 50,000 downloads
- Jewel Sea – 10,000 downloads
- lux fruit game – 10,000 downloads
- lucky clover – 10,000 downloads
- king blitz – 5,000 downloads
- lucky hammer – 1,000 downloads
If any of the above phishing apps are installed on your Android device, you should uninstall them immediately and then run an AV scan to find and remove any leftovers.
BleepingComputer has asked Google about the safety of the application still on the Play Store. I will update this post as soon as I get an answer.
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