Shady reward apps on Google Play amass 20 million downloads

Gandalf_The_Grey · Jan 29, 2023

A new category of activity tracking applications has been having massive success recently on Google Play, Android's official app store, having been downloaded on over 20 million devices.

The applications promote themselves as health, pedometer, and good habit-building apps, promising to give users random rewards for staying active in their daily lives, reaching distance goals, etc.

According to a report by the Dr. Web antivirus, though, the rewards may be impossible to cash out or are only made available partially after forcing users to watch a large number of advertisements.

Three notable examples listed in Dr. Web's report are:

Lucky Step – Walking Tracker – 10 million downloads

WalkingJoy – 5 million downloads

Lucky Habit: health tracker – 5 million downloads

Another example of a similar app that's still available on Google Play is 'Wonder Time,' a rewards app that has amassed 500,000 downloads.

In the same report, Dr. Web warned that phishing apps disguised as investment apps and games were found on Google Play, measuring over 450,000 downloads.

The apps connect to a remote server upon launch and receive a configuration instructing them on what to do. Typically, the instructions involve loading phishing pages that request users to enter sensitive details.

The malicious game apps observed by Dr. Web are the following:

Golden Hunt – 100,000 downloads

Reflector – 100,000 downloads

Seven Golden Wolf blackjack – 100,000 downloads (still on Google Play)

Unlimited Score – 50,000 downloads

Big Decisions – 50,000 downloads

Jewel Sea – 10,000 downloads

Lux Fruits Game – 10,000 downloads

Lucky Clover – 10,000 downloads

King Blitz – 5,000 downloads

Lucky Hammer – 1,000 downloads

If you have any of the above phishing apps installed on your Android device, you should uninstall them immediately and then run an AV scan to locate and remove any remnants.

Shady reward apps on Google Play amass 20 million downloads

A new category of activity tracking applications has been having massive success recently on Google Play, Android's official app store, having been downloaded on over 20 million devices.

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