Google has been fighting since the beginning of 2017 joker, a family of ‘malware‘-also known as bread– which has been hiding in apps for several years Android downloaded on Google Play to cheat through SMS and WAP payments.
Joker’s ‘modus operandi’ is twofold: on the one hand, spy on your SMS and contacts and on the other, it tries to steal money from you by automatically subscribing to premium SMS services no interaction from you, just by opening the app.
Of the money extracted on these platforms, cybercriminals will keep a significant part. In this way, they are interested in subscribing to as many services as possible to get a greater economic return.
More than a thousand ‘apps’ infected
Despite Google’s efforts to remove all of Joker’s malware from its Google Play store, it periodically manages to sneak into some Android apps.
As of January 2020, Google Play’s defense systems had removed 1,700 ‘apps’ with the Joker malware before they were downloaded by users. And in September of that same year he did the same with 17 morewhich before being withdrawn got around 120,000 downloads.
The problem is this: if the user downloads a damaged ‘app’ before Google Play removes it, his mobile is exposed to potential espionage and fraud from the ‘malware’ until he uninstalls it.
The discovered now
Related news
A few days ago, the cybersecurity company Pradeo warned of four other ‘apps’ that the Joker had sneaked into before Google Play could identify him and kill him:
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Smart SMS Messages: With more than 50,000 downloads, this application supposedly allowed you to personalize the SMS you sent to third parties.
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Blood Pressure Monitor: As its name suggests, it’s an ‘app’ that supposedly measured blood pressure.
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Voice Languages Translator:
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Quick Text SMS: which promised whoever downloaded it to their mobile phone the possibility of personalizing your messages to the fullest.
If you have any of these applications installed (or know someone who does) you should immediately uninstall them without opening them.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism