8-million Android users duped

Adware apps installed from Google Play

Eight million Android users had been duped into downloading dozens of adware applications disguised as photo editing apps and games that actually take over the screens of users.

Security firm Trend Micro blew the whistle on the money-making scam involving about 85 apps downloaded by unsuspecting users from Google Play, which promptly removed them.

Adware apps run in the background of devices and generate revenues for their originators by silently serving click ads. The 85 apps were described by Trend Micro as “particularly brazen and sneaky.”

“It isn’t your run-of-the-mill adware family,” said Ecular Xu, a mobile threat response engineer at Trend Micro.

“Apart from displaying advertisements that are difficult to close, it employs unique techniques to evade detection through user behavior and time-based triggers.”

The apps keep a record when they were installed and sit dormant for around half-an-hour. It would then hide its icon and create a shortcut on the user’s home screen, the security firm said.

“These ads are shown in full screen,” said Xu. “Users are forced to view the whole duration of the ad before being able to close it or go back to app itself.”

He explained that when the apps are unlocked, they displayed ads on the users’ home screens. They use codes to make sure the users do not get suspicious as the ads generated are varied.

The ads can be configured later by the fraudster to run more frequently thereby hijacking the devices’ resources.

Some of the offending apps are Super Selfie Camera, Cos Camera, Pop Camera and One Stroke Line Puzzle. Each one

had a million downloads each.