Cybersecurity company Avast announced a new find – more than 200 scams with hidden subscriptions or excessive subscription prices were found in the official online stores of applications for Android and mobile devices Apple, Google Play and the App Store.
Such rogue applications are called Fleeceware. According to experts, this is a relatively new type of fraud. The user is offered to download an interesting application for a free trial period, most often for three days. The app will then automatically charge the disproportionately high subscription fees.
For example, the FortuneScope app will charge $ 66 (approximately RUB 5,000) per week after a short trial period, which will cost the victim $ 3,432 (approximately RUB 300,000) per year if the subscription is not canceled. An app is not enough just to uninstall the app: the subscription must be canceled in the app store settings. Ads for these apps often appear on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok.
The fraudulent applications detected have been downloaded more than a billion times in total. To date, they have generated over $ 400 million in revenue. It is noted that scammers earned $ 4.5 million on Russian Apple users, applications were downloaded 23.2 million times. Android users spent $ 400,000 on subscriptions, with 21.6 million app downloads.
Avast threat researcher Jakub Vávra noted that, judging by the advertisements, such fraudulent applications primarily target children and adolescents, who are offered “free download” or “free install” of the application, and the scammers have time to get substantial income before than parents will notice the weekly cash write-offs.
Full lists of such rogue apps can be found here for Google Play and the App Store.
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