Be wary of fleeceware - money cheat apps

The name Fleeceware was coined by Sophos researchers, for a new type of application that is not classified as a malicious application and a suspiciously unwanted application because they do not have any malicious activity. From there, they can deceive the Google Play app market for Android devices and the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad tablets.

It is worth mentioning that these apps are used to claim hundreds of dollars from tricked users to install them just to use basic features, often provided for free or for a few dollars on other applications. .

Millions of users are deceived

Sophos Company has found 40 such apps on the Google Play app market. Some of these apps have been downloaded over 100 million times, and each app requires an annual subscription fee of up to $ 511. To use these apps, users are required to sign up for a trial with billing information. However, this trial type forces the user to self-destruct if they don't want to be charged after the trial ends.

Be wary of fleeceware - money cheat apps Picture 1

Similarly, 32 fleeceware applications on the Apple App Store have been downloaded by iPhone and iPad users about 3,680,000 times. Many of these apps are labeled for free instead of trial. These applications often entice users to install after advertising through multiple channels, including popular social networking platforms, YouTube, even in other applications. Users are tricked into installing because these apps are always rated 5 stars, which the developers fabricate to lure users.

Considering this is a trivial trick, but it is clear that it works, Mr. Jagadeesh Chandraiah added that a small number of users may not be able to unsubscribe from the trial, even if they try to do so. . From there, application developers can take advantage of users who forget, or cannot unsubscribe. With millions of installs, even if a handful of users forget to unsubscribe, app developers can still reap a lot of money.

Fleeceware application face score

These applications are utility applications that are often searched by many people such as horoscopes, photography, emoticons and imitations of famous characters. Some specific applications such as: Selfie Art - Photo Editor, Palmistry Decoder, Picsjoy-Cartoon Effect Editor, Face Aging Scan-AI Age Camera, QR Code Reader - Scanner, My Replica - Celebrity Like Me, Avatar Creator - Cartoon Emoji. .

How to unregister fleeceware

For Android devices:

Step 1. Open the Play Store app, or Play Store.

Step 2. Check that the user's logged in Google account is correct.

Step 3. Click the button with the three dashes and then select Subscriptions.

Step 4. Click to select the subscription that the user wants to manage or cancel.

For iPhone phones and iPad tablets:

Step 1. Open the Settings app.

Step 2. Click on the name of the user, then select Subscriptions.

Step 3. Click a subscription to change or cancel it.

David Pac

Update 29 December 2020