Cybersecurity firm Pradeo, is warning users of Android phones around the world to delete six particular Apps that contain a harmful program called Joker, which “simulates clicks and intercept SMS to subscribe to unwanted paid premium services unknowing to users.”
The Apps – containing the Joker bot – Pradeo says is able to sign people up to expensive premium subscription services.
“These Apps have been downloaded almost 200,000 times from Google Play Store, Pradeo has stated.
A post by Pradeo also read, “Today, Pradeo once again identified infected applications on Google Play Store, showing the store’s struggle to prevent malicious activities on its platform. Users are advised to immediately delete them from their device to avoid fraudulent activities.”
If you are using any of the given Apps below, just make sure to remove them from your phone as soon as possible.
- Convenient Scanner 2 (100,000+ downloads)
- Separate Doc Scanner (50,000+ downloads)
- Safety AppLock (10,000+ downloads)
- Push Message – Text & SMS (10,000+ downloads)
- Emoji Wallpaper (10,000+ downloads)
- Fingetip GameBox (1000+ downloads)
A quick check on the Google Play Store on Huawei Y9 Prime phone showed that four out of the six malicious Apps were still available on the store – The Safety AppLock, Push Message, Emoji Wallpaper and Fingetip GameBox Apps were on the Google Play Store but Convenient Scanner 2 and Separate Doc Scanner were not.
The advice is that if you have not downloaded any of them, please don’t. And if you have downloaded any, please delete.
