Have these 9 apps on your smartphone? Beware! Google Play Store has banned them, DELETE right now; check list

If you have these 9 apps on your smartphone then you are under threat. Google Play store has banned them, but you may already have them on your smartphone. Delete them now.

These 9 malicious apps have been banned by Google Play Store, but they are still available on third-party, unsecured app repositories. (Pixabay)

Smartphone users are under immediate threat from malicious software that can hijack their Facebook accounts, revealed cybersecurity researchers. Now, most people lose track of the number of apps that they have downloaded on their smartphones, Some of them were downloaded at the spur of the moment, others due to some email or WhatsApp notification they may have received only to forget all about them later. Some are never actually even used. However, there is a massive danger involved in developing these kinds of habits. Reason being that what may seem like a perfectly harmless app to the user may well be hiding malicious software that is directed at stealing usernames and passwords. These can be of your social media accounts like Twitter and Facebook, but even worse, these can be directed at finding out your personal banking details. Now, it has been reported that Google has identified and banned as any as 9 malicious apps from Play Store. So, users must take immediate steps to check whether their smartphone has any of these. If there is any, delete them right now.

Researchers at Zimperium's zLabs have identified the FlyTrap malicious programme specifically for its ability to dupe users and hijack their Facebook accounts. This allows hackers to take control of Facebook accounts and access emails and cookies too. Worse of all is that this malicious app can send messages to friends and family members of these smartphone owners to download these apps too. Unfortunately, the cybercriminals have hidden them very well in some totally innocuous-looking apps and this means users have no idea about them. The FlyTrap has spread across the globe, researchers revealed.

The reason people end up downloading these kinds of apps is that they lure them with promises of freebies that are never actually delivered. Zimperium says, "The threat actors made use of several themes that users would find appealing such as free Netflix coupon codes, Google AdWords coupon codes, and voting for the best football (soccer) team or player."

After installation, the malicious application displays pages that engage the user and asks for a response from them that ultimately lead them nowhere and in fact, users may end up divulging sensitive information.

Researchers have revealed the list of 9 such malicious apps that must be deleted from smartphones now. These are

* com.luxcarad.cardid : GG Voucher

* com.gardenguides.plantingfree : Vote European Football

* com.free_coupon.gg_free_coupon : GG Coupon Ads

* com.m_application.app_moi_6 : GG Voucher Ads

* com.free.voucher : GG Voucher

* com.ynsuper.chatfuel : Chatfuel

* Com.free_coupon.net_coupo n : Net Coupon

* com.movie.net_coupon : Net Coupon

* com.euro2021 : EURO 2021 Official