Google has removed 8 fraudulent cryptocurrency applications from the Play Store, and 120 more have been found

Trend Micro’s cybersecurity company has detected over 120 fraudulent cryptocurrency applications. Some of them were found in the Google Play store, which the internet giant immediately removed. However, there are still “a number of applications of the same type” and “some of these applications have been downloaded more than 100,000 times” in the store.

Trend Micro has detected more than 120 fraudulent cryptocurrency applications

Trend Micro, a multinational cybersecurity company, has released report warning against fake cloud cryptocurrency applications that cause victims to watch ads or pay for subscriptions. The company wrote:

“We recently discovered eight deceptive mobile applications that pretend to be cryptocurrency cloud applications… where users can earn cryptocurrency by investing money in cloud mining.

The application names are Bitfunds, BTC Miner, BTC – Pool Mining Cloud Wallet, Crypto Holic, Daily BTC Rewards, BTC 2021, Minebit Pro and ETH – Pool Mining Cloud. ”

These applications “get victims to watch ads, pay for subscription services with an average monthly fee of $ 15, and pay for increased mining options without getting anything for it.”

The company added: “We reported our findings to Google Play and the apps were removed from the Play Store immediately.”

However, the cyber security company said that searching for the keywords “cloud mining” on Google Play still yielded “many applications of the same type”, adding that “some of these applications have even been downloaded more than 100,000 times.”

“More than 120 fake cryptocurrency applications are still available online. These applications that do not have the ability to extract cryptocurrencies and force the user to monitor ads in the applications. Some of these fake crypto applications have forced users to click on ads instead of forcing them to pay for increased computing power, ”the company said.

Some applications, such as BTC – Pool Mining Cloud Wallet and BTC 2021, contain malicious functions with ad flooded interfaces, the company described. Users are encouraged to click on the ads to prove that they are not robots and to be informed that they can begin to benefit from viewing the video ads in the app. They are also “informed about watching video ads in applications to increase mining speed.”

Some apps require users to “invite a few friends to unlock the selection interface,” the company said, adding:

“However, even after users invite friends and unlock the selection interface, they could not select cryptocurrencies from the application, transactions are always in a pending state.”

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