Adware disguised as activity tracking apps and Phishing apps disguised as investment apps and games are gaining popularity on the Google Play store. The adware apps promote themselves as health, pedometer and good habit-building apps. They promise users random rewards for staying active. However the rewards are impossible to cash out and are only made partially available after forcing users to watch a large number of advertisements. As for the phishing apps, they would loading phishing pages that request users to enter sensitive details. These apps have been downloaded on over 20 million devices, with many of them still available on the app store.
This segment was created for the It’s 5:05 podcast