Google removes 38 fraudulent camera apps from Play Store: Here’s the list

Google has long tried to prevent malicious apps from making their way into the Play Store. Yet, over the years, scammers have come up with innovative means of dodging checks and balances put in place by the company for preventing such apps from being available in its app store. Now, a new report details a list of 38 camera apps that Google recently removed from the Play Store for their fraudulent activity.

What’s shocking is that many of these fraudulent camera apps have amassed over 1 million downloads on the Play Store.

According to a report by the White Ops Threat Intelligence and Research Team, scammers behind these malicious camera apps used a clever trick to dodge Play Store security. “In the time since that first app was published, the fraudsters published a new app every 11 days on average. And on average, those apps were pulled down from the Play Store 17 days later. These numbers tell a story of a cat and mouse game, in which the Play Store hunts down the fraudster and keeps them in check by removing fraudulent apps as quickly as they’re discovered,” the team wrote in a post.

In an interesting discovery, the researchers noticed that by September 2019, the scammers had already had 21 apps removed. However, a batch of 15 apps that were published after September 2019 had a much slower removal rate.

“The fraudster likely developed a more robust mechanism to avoid detection and removal,” the researchers noted.

Meanwhile, here is a list of the 38 apps that Google removed from the Play Store for your reference:

1. Yoroko Camera

2. Solu Camera

3. Lite Beauty Camera

4. Beauty Collage Lite

5. Beauty & Filters Camera

6. Photo Collage & Beauty Camera

7. Beauty Camera Selfie Filter

8. Gaty Beauty Camera

9. Pand Selife Beauty Camera

10. Catoon Photo Editor & Selfie Beauty Camera

11. Benbu Selife Beauty Camera

12. Pinut Selife Beauty Camera & Photo Editor

13. Mood Photo Editor & Selife Beauty Camera

14. Rose Photo Editor & Selfie Beauty Camera

15. Selife Beauty Camera & Photo Editor

16. Fog Selife Beauty Camera

17. First Selife Beauty Camera & Photo Editor

18. Vanu Selife Beauty Camera

19. Sun Pro Beauty Camera

20. Funny Sweet Beauty Camera

21. Little Bee Beauty Camera

22. Beauty Camera & Photo Editor Pro

23. Grass Beauty Camera

24. Ele Beauty Camera

25. Flower Beauty Camera

26. Best Selfie Beauty Camera

27. Orange Camera

28. Sunny Beauty Camera

29. Landy Selfie Beauty Camera

30. Nut Selfie Camera

31. Rose Photo Editor & Selfie Beauty Camera

32. Art Beauty Camera-2019

33. Elegant Beauty Cam-2019

34. Selfie Beauty Camera & Funny Filters

35. Selfie Beauty Camera Pro

36. Pro Selfie Beauty Camera

37. Unknown app (com.satu.beauty.selfie.camera)

38. Unknown app (com.beautyphotos.collage.camerafilters)