From time to time, ads appear with the most dangerous applications on the market. Some say they will steal all your money; others, which will be made with all your personal data.

But in both cases, what seems like something from science fiction, is true. Hackers are developing techniques that allow them to achieve their goals in the most subtle way possible. It does not matter if they are photos that they can later resell or the 10,000 euros that you have saved in your checking account, they want your money above all things.

Therefore, we must be especially careful with everything we download on our mobile, as it can mislead us and end up being victims of an unpleasant situation. This has been denounced by the cybersecurity company Sophos, which has indicated 30 applications aimed at charging extra costs to users through subscriptions and premium purchases.

Or, in other words, aimed at taking out all your savings at the stroke of a card. These applications, which have been installed on 3.6 million devices and are present in the official Apple App Store, are examples of fleeceware.

Among them, they are located horoscope readers, lucky phones, image editors, future readers in the palm of your hand, as well as programs for scan QR codes and applications of face filters. “

Their main purpose seems to be to charge users large amounts with surcharges,” says Jagadeesh Chandraiah, senior security researcher at SophosLabs and author of the report.

These applications have in some cases weekly paid subscriptions that reach 478 euros per year.

“Their developers take advantage of the monetization practices widely used by legitimate free applications, but taking them one step further,” explains Chandraiah, who indicates that although they are not officially malicious, they are unethical and take advantage of consumer trust.

Free and dangerous

While it is true that they usually have free trials, they are also accompanied by subscriptions that add up to hundreds of euros a year. In most cases, they use ads within other apps to spread themselves and often have 5-star ratings that may be false.

Sophos has advised users a number of security measures to avoid this type of software, which go through installing only applications from the official App Store or Google Play stores and even on these platforms, carefully examine the new ones or those that have been known through advertisements.

An important aspect for users is that they know how to unsubscribe, since it is not enough to delete the application from the device, and follow the instructions of the App Store or Google Play.

Which are?

  • Crazy Helium Funny Face Editor
  • Banuba: Face Filters & Effects
  • QR Code Reader – Scanner
  • QR Code Reader & Barcode PRO
  • Max Volume Booster
  • Selfie Art – Photo Editor
  • Seer App:Face, Horoscope, Palm
  • Palmistry Decoder
  • Lucky Life – Future Seer
  • Life Palmistry – AI Palm & Tag
  • Picsjoy-Cartoon Effect Editor
  • Aging seer – Faceapp,Horoscope
  • Face Aging Scan-AI Age Camera
  • Face Reader – Horoscope Secret
  • Horoscope Secret
  • CIAO – Live Video Chat
  • Astro Time & Daily Horoscope
  • Video Recorder / Reaction
  • Avatar Creator – Cartoon Emoji
  • iMoji – Cartoon Avatar Emojis
  • Life Insight-Palm & Animal Face
  • Curiosity Lab-Fun Encyclopedia
  • Quick Art: 1-Tap Photo Editor
  • Astroline astrology, horoscope
  • Celeb Twin – Who you look like
  • My Replica – Celebrity Like Me
  • Face Reading – Horoscope 2020
  • Forecast Master 2019
  • mSpy Lite Phone Family Tracker
  • Fortunescope: Palm Reader 2019
  • Zodiac Master Plus – Palm Scan
  • WonderKey-Cartoon Avatar Maker

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