18 May 2024,   10:56
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Over 600,000 Android users infected with malware on Google Play - delete these apps now

Although malicious apps normally try to install malware or adware on your smartphone, a new batch of bad apps has been discovered that’s actually signing users up for premium subscription services instead, writes tomsguide.com.

“According to a new report (opens in new tab) from the cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, subscription trojans are being added to seemingly harmless Android apps in an attempt to defraud unsuspecting users.

We’ve seen this before with the infamous Joker and Harly malware, both of which used similar tactics to secretly subscribe users to paid services. This new subscription trojan has been dubbed “Fleckpe” by Kaspersky’s researchers and it"s currently being spread through photo editing apps, smartphone wallpaper packs and other utilities for the best Android phones.

According to Kaspersky, this subscription trojan has been active since last year and so far, it has been installed on over 620,000 devices. What makes Fleckpe and other subscription trojans so dangerous though is that you might not even realize your smartphone has been infected and that you’ve been subscribed to a paid service without your knowledge.

Fortunately, all of the apps listed below have since been removed from the Google Play Store. However, if you have one of them installed on your smartphone, you will need to manually delete it. Here are all of the Fleckpe-infected apps that have been discovered so far:

Beauty Camera Plus
Beauty Photo Camera
Beauty Slimming Photo Editor
Fingertip Graffiti
GIF Camera Editor
HD 4K Wallpaper
Impressionism Pro Camera
Microclip Video Editor
Night Mode Camera Pro
Photo Camera Editor
Photo Effect Editor

Keep in mind though that there could be other apps infected with the Fleckpe subscription trojan out there. We"ll update this story if more are discovered but in the meantime, you want to make sure that none of the apps above are installed on your smartphone”.

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