Google has delisted eight reportedly fraudulent mobile applications. Reportedly, they duplicate crypto enthusiasts by collecting charges for the Play Store’s actual cloud mining operation.
Fraudulent Mobile Apps
Fraudulent mobile apps are currently a common way for misleading unfair people at a high level of success. The latest investigation by trend micro uncovered a fabricated pretence for a legal cloud mining business. The business exploited Android applications that employ encryption users to charge a monthly cost.
Further studies revealed that Google’s harmful apps pose as crypto-mining software, mislead users to see sponsored advertising and pay for a non-existent cloud mining service.
The Applications in Question
The report not just imposed a monthly cost of about $15 but also paid extra for enabling “increased mining capabilities”. Furthermore, several applications required the user to pay in advance.
Mine services such as BitFunds, Bitcoin Miner, Daily Bitcoin Rewards, Crypto Holic, MineBit Pro, Bitcoin 2021 and Ethereum—Pool Mining Cloud were fraudulent cryptographic applications.
The list also contains the Bitcoin crypto wallet – Pool Mining Cloud Wallet.
Extreme Amount of Fake Apps
Although the results mentioned above have been submitted to Google Play and should be removed from the Play store, Trend Micro reports that it found several additional fake applications over 100,000 times downloaded. The data from the firm indicates that in the Play Store, there are over 120 fraudulent apps:
“These apps, which do not have cryptocurrency mining capabilities and deceive users into watching in-app ads. Therefore affecting more than 4,500 users globally from July 2020 to July 2021.”
Google Taking Measures
Google amended its ad policy on August 3. Moreover, allowing users to sell their Google goods to crypto exchanges and wallet providers. In this drive, registered marketers consist of a money services business and with at least one state as a money transmitter, or a federal or state-chartered bank entity.”
However, the legislation impedes cryptocurrencies from advertising initial coin offers for companies and celebrities. On the other hand, social media company TikTok prohibits crypt advertising altogether in its platform.
