Google has removed eight Android apps on the Play Store for apparently deceiving people they’re mining cryptocurrency for them.
While these apps are now out of the Android app store, those who already downloaded them must delete them now manually.
Apparently, apps named with the words Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Miner, and others, are luring people to spend money on them with the promise of large profits in return.
These apps are pretending to be crypto mining applications that utilize cloud-mining technology. Some of them are even listed in the Play Store’s Finance category.
However, these apps never really start any real mining operation after users paid real money or watched ads. This was spotted by the firm Trend Micro, who found out that none of these apps displayed any crypto mining behavior.
To further deceive users, these apps would display a fake mining activity interface. What’s worse, some of the services are subscription-based, which costs as high as USD15, or around Php751 when directly converted to Philippine pesos.
Some of them are also paid apps. One app, Crypto Holic Bitcoin Cloud Mining, costs USD12.99 (around Php651).
You can check the culprits below.
- BitFunds Crypto Cloud Mining
- Bitcoin Miner Cloud Mining
- Bitcoin (BTC) Pool Mining Cloud Wallet
- Crypto Holic Bitcoin Cloud Mining
- Daily Bitcoin Rewards Cloud Based Mining System
- Bitcoin 2021
- MineBit Pro – Crypto Cloud Mining & btc miner
- Ethereum (ETH) – Pool Mining Cloud
If you’re still running any of these apps, it would be the best idea to uninstall them now. For future reference, it’s best to do a rigorous background check before you download and pay for a crypto mining app — or any paid or subscription-based application in general.
Via: India Today