Three mobile phone apps have been removed by Google in a crackdown on fraudsters.
The Style Message, Blood Pressure App and Camera PDF Scanner apps have all been outlawed.
All of the apps could scam users out of money by pretending to be similar genuine apps.
The Mirror reports that they were littered with trojan horses, which are able to hijack important information or kick off paid subscription without the user being asked.
(Image: Kaspersky)
One of them is also said to contain a nasty bug which is able to avoid Google’s security detection system.
Experts fear that more will come along quickly to replace them following their removal.
Others are said to have mimicked to gain the users trust.
They are said to include GameBeyond, Tubemate, Minecraft, GTA5 and Vidmate.
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Apps which have trojans built into them are regularly removed from the store but criminals quickly replace them and imitate popular brands and names.
Igor Golovin from Kaspersky said. “Most of the apps completely lack any legitimate functionality.
“They begin subscribing straight after they’re launched, while the user sees a loading window.
“They usually pay for legitimate services in a user’s name and scammers take a cut from the money billed.
“These types of subscription fees tend to be fleeced from the phone balance.”
Cyber crooks download real apps and add malicious code before reuploading to the app store under a pseudonym, experts say.
But once the app is on your phone it will try to access to text messages or notifications to gather information.
Victims of Jocker were mainly in Saudi Arabia (21.20%), Poland (8.98%) and Germany (6.01%).
Downloading apps from unofficial sources should be avoided.
“Read the reviews, read up on the developer, the terms of use and payment,” Mr Golovin advised.
“For messaging choose a well-known app with positive reviews.
“Even if you trust an app, you should avoid granting it too many permissions.
“Only allow access to notifications for apps that need it to perform their intended purposes — for example, to transfer notifications to wearable devices.
“Apps for something like themed wallpapers or photo editing don’t need access to your notifications.”
