Refrain from downloading apps from unofficial sources and keep security software on your Android ( ESET Mobile Security, for example) up to date.
Generally, Android users can effectively avoid the installation of malicious or unwanted applications. This step should increase security and further lower the amount of malicious applications on Google Play. In March 2015 Google announced that all applications will also be reviewed by humans. Google’s Bouncer has been used since late 2011 on all uploaded applications and it has decreased the percentage of malicious applications in the store by about 40%. The damage that this recent Android malware discovery can inflict is perhaps less acute when compared to the file-encrypting Android/Simplocker but the seriousness of this threat lies in the fact that it may have been downloaded by almost three million users from the official Google Play store. Note that the scam webpage has nothing to do with the legitimate G Data security software. If the user falls for the scam, it will cost him 4.80 € per week. The application does not have permissions to send the SMS itself and solely relies tricking the user to do it manually by social engineering.
The text of the SMS appears as an activation of the antivirus product. In the endgame of the scam, the scareware prepares an SMS in the system default SMS application. Yet, according to public data from the Google Play store, several of them were installed between 100.000 – 500.000 times and the total number of installations of all 33 scareware applications lies between 660.000 and 2.800.000.įigures 6-8 Scareware messages and a fake G-Data Mobile Security webpage During the time they were online, they received poor user reviews and negative comments. The first scareware applications were uploaded to the store in August 2014. They were uploaded to the Play store by different developer accounts, but we assume that these were all created by one person. Users were then directed to remove viruses by activating a premium-rate SMS subscription that would cost them 4.80 EUR per week.Īll of the identified scareware apps behaved in a similar way, the only differences being in the names and icons of the applications. All of the discovered apps were fake, in that they did not contain any of the promised functionality and only displayed banners that tried to trick users into believing that their Android system is infected with a “dangerous virus”. Most of the rogue applications pretended to be cheats for the popular Minecraft game.
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