Malware And Phishing Scams Are Taking The Form Of Fake Game Guides In Play Books

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Malware And Phishing Scams Are Taking The Form Of Fake Game Guides In Play Books

play books ah

Malware does not exactly run rampant on the Android platform, it does however exist and any time it comes up it’s still a problem that needs to be addressed. Phishing scams are less common within Android, however they exist as well and are a problem that users will want to watch out for. Typically when a user might encounter a malware issue on Android it has to do with an infected apk file they usually get from outside third party sources other than the Play Store, although there have been apps found to be infected inside of the Play Store before. Most recently, malware and scams are taking shape in another form that people may have not expected, fake guides for games that are located in the Play Books section which promise the buyer access to a cracked and fully working apk and obb files for Android games.

As noted by Android Police, there are loads of these fake guides that are promising users access to cracked apks for games like Limbo, and The Simpsons Tapped Out. The Simpsons Tapped Out is a free game already so why would anyone want to download this guide? Because it also promises donuts,(a special in game currency for buying things which you normally are required to pay real money for to obtain)money, and xp in unlimited amounts for free. Past the obvious fact that this is violating numerous copyrights, there should be red flags raising all over for this. There are guides for other games as well, like Asphalt 8, LEGO Star Wars Complete Saga, and there was even one for one of Ubisoft’s more recent games, Valiant Hearts: The Great War, which is an episodic series game and normally costs $4.99 for the first episode.

There are hundreds more too, as the list just kept populating when I proceeded to scroll down the page. The guides themselves can’t provide the user with any sort of apk install for the games, or the promised in game content, but the guides contain links which lead them to shady websites where the files can be downloaded, and then of course there’s the cost for the guides which range from one dollar to a few bucks. Upon hitting one of these links within a guide, the user would then be redirected to a website called Androider through various ad walls, and would then have an EXE computer program downloaded and installed onto their PC, with apks being downloaded to their mobile device.

Android Police also points out that they spotted phishing scams in here too, which can be just as bad as the malware as they usually try to attempt and gain access to your personal and sensitive information. Just the fact that these fake game guides exist inside of the Play Store is bad enough, but they contain the names of the legitimate games and apps which affords them the opportunity to pop up in search results, where other people who aren’t actively seeking them to stumble upon any one of the guides and download potentially malicious content. When in doubt just use some common sense and stay away from things like this.