Malicious Beauty Camera Apps

Google has removed 29 malicious “Beauty Camera” apps that were sharing pornographic material and forwarding users, especially in India, to phishing websites to steal their information.

Some of these Android apps have been downloaded millions of times and a large number of downloads have originated from Asia – especially in India, a report from the US-based Cyber ​​Security firm Trend Micro says.

Trend Micro said that the app is now removed from Google Play Store.

Trend Micro said, “Anyone downloading one of these apps will not immediately suspect that something is wrong unless they decide to delete the app.”

When users unlock their devices, including malicious advertisements (such as fraudulent content and pornography), such an app will push many full-screen ads, which will pop up through a user’s browser.

The report says, “During our analysis, we found a paid online pornography player, which was downloaded while clicking on a popup.”

None of these apps gave an indication that they were behind the advertisements, so users can find it difficult to determine where they are coming from.

Some of these apps were redirected to phishing websites, who asked the user for personal information, such as addresses and phone numbers.

“For example, the package will create a shortcut after the com.beauty.camera.project.cloud launches. However, this app will hide its icon from the app list, which will make it more difficult for users to uninstall the app because they will be unable To drag and drop it, “Trend Micro was noted.