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

Many of these fraudulent camera apps have amassed over 1 million downloads on the Play Store.

By: HT TECH
| Updated on: Aug 20 2022, 21:20 IST

By September 2019, the scammers had already had 21 apps removed. (Pixabay)

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