Google Play Store: As several as eight deceptive cryptocurrency mining apps have been removed from Google Play Store on account of tricking customers. The apps had been found to be fake and they tricked customers into watching ads, according to safety firm Trend Micro. The apps had been posing as cryptocurrency cloud mining apps enabling customers to earn cryptocurrency by investing in a cloud-mining operation. However, the apps, according to Trend Micro, had been tracking customers into watching advertisements, paying an typical month-to-month charge of $15 or about Rs 1,one hundred for subscription services and paying for “mining capabilities” enhancement with out any return on investment.
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It also named the eight apps that had been removed – Bitcoin Miner – Cloud Mining, Crypto Holic – Bitcoin Cloud Mining, Ethereum (ETH) – Pool Mining Cloud, BitFunds – Crypto Cloud Mining, Daily Bitcoin Rewards – Cloud Based Mining System, Bitcoin (BTC) – Pool Mining Cloud Wallet, MineBit Pro – Crypto Cloud Mining & btc miner, and Bitcoin 2021.
Two of these apps even essential customers to buy them from the Play Store in order to set up them, largely since customers are more most likely to trust apps that call for to be paid for at the time of installation. While Crypto Holic essential customers to spend $12.99 or about Rs 960 in order to download it, Daily Bitcoin Rewards expense $5.99 or about Rs 450.
The apps did not have any cryptocurrency mining behaviour, as per the safety firm, and only carried out bogus mining activity by means of a neighborhood mining simulation module that integrated a counter and some random functions. These apps, nevertheless, had in-app billing systems by means of which they asked customers to spend for improved mining capabilities, charging something in between $14.99 (or about Rs 1,111) and a whopping $189.99 or about Rs 14,000.
Moreover, one of the apps – MineBit Pro – even listed in its terms of use that it was merely an educational simulation/game that would enable customers discover more about the crypto income ecosystem, adding that any refund for buy of virtual goods was not assured.
Though these eight apps are stated to have been removed from the Google Play Store, Trend Micro is concerned about the truth that key phrases like cloud mining in the Play Store lead to listing of several apps that could be of the very same form, with some obtaining more than 1 lakh downloads.