Cyber security provider Quick Heal has spotted a few Fake Apps with more than 50,000 installations on the Google’s Play Store.
Quick Heal's Security Lab in a finding said that these applications appear to be genuine as a PDF reader, PDF Downloader, PDF Scanner etc., but don’t have such functionality.
The main purpose of these apps is to increase the download count of other applications and improve their ratings, the Lab said in its report.
Working process
In the beginning, these applications prompt users to download and rate 5 star to sponsor apps in order to unlock this application. After installation of other applications and rating it, the user will be able to use the PDF reader after 24 hours. However, after 24 hours, the same loop starts. It asks users to login with some created password and asks them to download the same application to unlock the application.
The application just loads a URL “ https://shar *********. blogspot.com/p/index.html ” and displays the webpage. It does not have any permissions related to PDF reader or converter.
The basic intention of this application is to increase the download count and good rating of sponsored apps. The sponsored application also does the same thing. In order to use other applications, first user should rate and download sponsored app. This is the trick of the author to increase the download count to earn revenue in the easiest way.
Users can easily recognize it by going through review.
Steps to spot Fake Apps
1. First, check an app’s description before you download it.
2. Then check the app developer’s name and their website. If the name sounds strange or odd, you have reasons to suspect it.
3. Then go through the reviews and ratings of the app. But, note that these can be faked too.
4. Avoid downloading apps from third-party app stores.