Minecraft lovers should be careful as researchers have found a number of fake Minecraft apps on the Google Play Store.
ESET, an IT security firm, reveals that over 30 Minecraft apps are available on the Play Store and most of them are malicious. ESET says that the first scareware Minecraft app appeared in August 2014, afterwhich many more appeared on the Play Store. The IT security firm believes that these malicious apps have been downloaded between 600,000 and 2.8 million times since August last year.
The fake apps lure users with their icon that resembles closely that of the actual Minecraft app. Once they are downloaded, the users' system encounters problems. When a user starts interacting with the app by clicking buttons such as Start, Exit, Options, or after clicking on an ad banner, a pop-up alert message appears suggesting that the system is infected. The alert message also gives an option to remove the virus, reveals Lukas Stefanko of ESET.
"Clicking on the alert leads to another step of the scam—several websites with more scareware messages. One of these websites tries to appear as if they belonged to the legitimate anti-virus vendor, G-Data," said Stefanko.
The scam also asks users to activate a premium rate SMS that costs 4.80 euros (about $5) each week.
The damage done by the fake apps may not be as high in comparison to previous scams. However, the scareware Minecraft apps have been downloaded by nearly 3 million people.
Stefanko says that many people who downloaded the fake apps thought it was genuine since they downloaded them from the Play Store. As such, the regular advice of avoiding apps from third-party websites does not apply.
The Google Play Store has had a history of malicious apps. However, Google has been trying to get rid of malicious apps with the help of the Bouncer bot. In a bid to boost user confidence, Google has also announced that humans will review app submissions.
ESET reveals that Google has also taken steps to remove the scareware Minecraft apps from the Play Store.
Photo: Linus Bohman | Flickr
