Minecraft players, beware fake ‘mods’ on Google Play
It could be “game over” for Minecraft fans who downloaded unauthorized mods (modifications) for their Android smartphone or tablet.
Instead of finding new content or tools to tweak the wildly popular Minecraft: Pocket Edition mobile game, more than 80 malicious apps — disguised as Minecraft mods — contained Trojans that bombarded users with ads or redirected them to scam websites, says ESET, a Slovakia-based cybersecurity company.
Lukas Stefanko, the malware researcher who discovered the fake mods, says there have been nearly 1 million downloads of the malicious apps from the Google Play store. “Users often fall for phony apps because they’re promising to deliver something new for a famous game like Minecraft, plus many have positive — but fabricated — ratings,” Stefanko says in an interview with USA TODAY.
Once launched, the apps displayed a screen with a download button, which didn’t install a mod but took users to a Web browser with “scareware” messages falsely notifying users of a found virus on their device and promoting them to download a new app.
Other apps displayed numerous advertisements.
The company offers step-bystep instructions on how to properly remove them at welivesecurity.com.
Microsoft did not comment on the ESET findings but said in a statement, “Customers should use caution when dealing with publishers who aren’t known or reputable.”
Google had no comment. Larry Perkins,
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This year, GameStop plans to open 65 Technology Brand stores and 35 Collectibles stores and will close 2% to 3% of its Game Stop stores, which amounts to at least 150 stores.