There is nothing like an area of ​​interest that begins to attract the general public for cybercriminals to focus on it. At the moment, one of the most important digital topics is undoubtedly cryptocurrencies and how to obtain them: Cryptocurrency.

In fact, with the increasing number of people interested in learning about cryptocurrency mining, cybercriminals are actively exploiting people’s interest by not only spreading crypto-mining malware, but as Trend Micro experts point out, Creating fake Android apps targeting those interested in virtual currencies.

8 scam apps you should delete

cyber security company Discover Up to 8 deceptive mobile apps pretending to be mining apps In the cryptocurrency cloud (discovered by Trend Micro as AndroidOS_FakeMinerPay and AndroidOS_FakeMinerAd), where users can earn cryptocurrency by investing money in the cloud mining process.

However, they discovered after analysis that “These malicious apps only trick victims into seeing ads, Pay for subscription services that average $15 per month Paying to increase mining capabilities without getting anything in return.”. None of the apps are available at the moment, since after informing Google, Google quickly removed the apps from its Play Store for Android.

These are the fraudulent apps that are no longer available on the Play Store:

• BitFunds – Crypto Cloud Mining
• Bitcoin Miner – Cloud Mining
• Bitcoin (BTC) – Pool Mining Cloud’s Cloud Wallet
• Crypto Holic – Bitcoin Cloud Mining
• Daily Bitcoin Rewards – Cloud Mining System
• Bitcoin 2021
• MineBit Pro – cryptocurrency and cloud mining for btc
• Ethereum (ETH) – Cloud Mining

Two of them are paid apps that users have to purchase; Crypto Holic – Bitcoin Cloud Mining costs $12.99 to download, while Bitcoin Daily Rewards – Cloud-based mining system costs $5.99.

There are still 120 more

It is important to note that when searching for keywords “cloud mining” In Google Play, “We still find many apps related to the same genre.” some of them It has been downloaded over 100,000 times.

Based on data from Trend Micro’s Mobile App Reputation Service (MARS), More than 120 cryptocurrency mining apps are still used for the victims. Estas apps, que no tienen capacidades de minería de criptodivisas y engañan a los usuarios para que vean anuncios in-app, han afectado a más de 4,500 usuarios en todo el mundo des de julio de 2020 hasta julio de 2021. MARS todaestén detecta How do AndroidOS_FakeMinerPay y AndroidOS_FakeMinerAd.

The research also found that some fake cryptocurrency mining apps were urging their users to click ads rather than paying for more computing power. These applications, specifically Bitcoin (BTC) – Pool Mining Cloud Wallet and Bitcoin 2021, They have the following malicious properties:

• The interfaces are filled with ads.
• Users are asked to click ads during fraudulent cryptocurrency mining activities to prove that users are not bots.
• Users are informed that they can start mining after watching in-app video ads.
• Users are advised to watch in-app video ads to increase mining speed.