24 plus 21 plus 17 plus 56 plus 40 plus another 25 more Android Apps you need to remove urgently

There is a list of Apps that need to be removed if you have them on your Android phone. The Apps contain what is being called “the Joker”:

Advocate Wallpaper
Age Face
Altar Message
Antivirus Security - Security Scan
Beach Camera
Board picture editing
Certain Wallpaper
Climate SMS
Collate Face Scanner
Cute Camera
Dazzle Wallpaper
Declare Message
Display Camera
Great VPN
Humour Camera
Ignite Clean
Leaf Face Scanner
Mini Camera
Print Plant scan
Rapid Face Scanner
Reward Clean
Ruddy SMS
Soby Camera
Spark Wallpaper

They have been removed from the Google Play Store already but if you have installed them you will need to remove them.

The background process of these Apps silently signs the user up to premium services and then captures the SMS authorisation code and installs it without your knowledge. It also will spy on your data.

There may be more of the Apps that need to be removed as the Google Store Apps are vetted. To read more about the problem see:


https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/joker-malware-on-google-play-store-downloaded-half-a-million-times

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Another 42 apps were identified that Google needed to remove from their App Store, while not the Joker problem this still uses background adware to use your smartphone/tablet to profit others. There are 21 that people may still have on their phones that should be removed if they have them. Over 8 million downloads of these Apps have occurred. They are:

  • Basketball Perfect Shot
  • DU Recorder
  • File Downloader
  • Flat Music Player
  • Free Social Video Downloader
  • Free Top Video Downloader
  • Free Video Downloader
  • Freed Radio FM Online
  • Heroes Jump
  • HikeTop+
  • Mini lite for Facebook
  • MP4 video downloader
  • Ringtone Maker
  • Ringtone Maker Pro
  • SaveInsta
  • Smart Gallery
  • Smart Notes for You
  • Solucionario
  • Tank classic
  • Video downloader
  • Water Drink Reminder

For a news article on the problem see:

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I tried to post that link on facebook… but it wont post. Cannot imagine why fb would censor a link like that…

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I doubt fb could tell us either - probably just one of those random fb bugs, theres plenty of them. I could post it fine …

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I was eventually able to post it as a comment

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17 more Riskware apps have been found. They bypassed Google Store Apps checks by stealthily concealing their habits. The article that first altered me is at https://www.infopackets.com/news/10702/android-users-17-rogue-apps-delete. Bitdefenders post about it is at https://labs.bitdefender.com/2020/01/seventeen-android-nasties-spotted-in-google-play-total-over-550k-downloads/

The list of apps you want to delete if you don’t want to visit the pages are as follows:

4K Wallpaper (Background 4K Full HD)
Backgrounds 4K HD
Barcode Scanner
Car Racing 2019
Clock LED
Explorer File Manager
File Manager Pro - Manager SD Card/Explorer
Mobnet.io: Big Fish Frenzy
Period Tracker - Cycle Ovulation Women's
QR & Barcode Scan Reader
QR Code - Scan & Read a Barcode
QR Code Reader & Barcode Scanner Pro
Screen Stream Mirroring
Today Weather Radar
Transfer Data Smart
VMOWO City: Speed Racing 3D
Wallpapers 4K, Backgrounds HD
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This is worse than trying to keep up with changes to the road rules!

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I just checked the file manager on my Samsung phone, and it’s the Asus file manager that came with a previous phone.

As long as it works and is secure :slight_smile: . (I did discover in the options menu that I had failed to un-check the ‘send my data so we can improve the app’ - now fixed.)

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Another batch of programs/apps from the Google Play Store that were using your device nefariously. Google has removed them from the Store but they may still be on phones. They are:

Raceinspace Astronaut

Cooking

Letmego

Biscuitent

Aquawar

Dressup

Translator

Travel Map

Withu Translate

24h Translate

Stickman Runner Parkour

Best Translate Tool

Littlefarm

Bestcalculate Multifunction

Folding Blocks Origami Mandala

Goldencat Hillracing

Hexadom

Ichinyan Fashion

Major Cookingstar

Major Zombie

Fastdownloader

Carstiny

Stickman Warrior

Biscuit

Splashio

Translate

Unblock Car Puzzle

Delicious Recipes

Multi Translate Threeinone

Pro Translator

Snap Translate

Smart Language Translate

Best Translate

Jewel Block Puzzle2019

Magic Cuble Blast Puzzle

Imgdownloader

Instant Translate

Besttranslate

Breaktower

Spaceship

Michimocho Video Downloader

Fortuneteller Tarotreading Horo

Titan Block Flip

Mcmc Ebook Reader

Swift Jungle Translate

Happycooking

Mcmccalculator Free

Tapsmore Challenge

Yummily Healthy Recipes

Hexamaster

Twmedia Downloader

Burningman

Amazingkitchen

Wego Translate

Arplanner Sketchplan

Arsketch Quickplan

Livetranslate

Calculatepro

Smart Tools Pro

Titanyan Igsaver

Digiv Weather Radar

Titan Translator

Artech Helpful

Armeasure Translate

To read more on the hidden threat see:

4 Likes

Another 40 Apps have been again removed from the Google Play Store but with over 20 million downloads they may still be residing on phones here. The list is as follows (please note these packages may have spelling mistakes as part of their names eg Selife):

Beauty & Filters Camera
Yoroko Camera
Solu Camera
Lite Beauty Camera
Beauty Collage Lite
Beauty & Filters Camera
Photo Collage & Beauty Camera
Beauty Camera Selfie
FilterGaty Beauty Camera
Pand Selife Beauty Camera
Catoon Photo Editor &Selfie Beauty Camera
Benbu Selife Beauty Camera
Pinut Selife Beauty Camera & Photo Editor
Mood Photo Editor & Selife Beauty Camera
Rose Photo Editor & Selfie Beauty Camera
Selife Beauty Camera & Photo Editor
Fog Selife Beauty Camera
First Selife Beauty Camera & Photo Editor
Vanu Selife Beauty Camera
Sun Pro Beauty Camera
Funny Sweet Beauty Camera
Little Bee Beauty Camera
Beauty Camera & Photo Editor
Pro Grass Beauty Camera
Ele Beauty Camera
Flower Beauty Camera
Best Selfie Beauty Camera
Orange Camera
Sunny Beauty Camera
Landy Selfie Beauty Camera
Nut Selfie Camera
Rose Photo Editor & Selfie Beauty Camera
Art Beauty Camera-2019
Elegant Beauty Cam-2019
Selfie Beauty Camera & Funny Filters
Selfie Beauty Camera Pro
Pro Selfie Beauty Camera

plus two unknown named ones but their packages are as follows:

com.satu.beauty.selfie.camera
com.beautyphotos.collage.camerafilters

Named as “Beauty and the (Fraud) Beast” by White Ops, the team who discovered it, it is a threat where the fraudulent apps hide their behaviour and ads appear that are seemingly not related to the app usage. This has been used before to obfuscate that the app was responsible.

To read more about the threat see White Ops article on the matter:

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That is certainly a lot of apps. I’m pretty sure I have at least of ones. The play store needs to do a better job of checking these apps before they put them up. Is there anyway to protect ourselves before we download them?

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Welcome aboard, @dominique73. The easiest way to protect yourself is to install as few apps as possible and always check what permissions they want. Make sure the apps are from well-known publishers (e.g. Apple/Google/Microsoft), and have millions of installs, as both of these mean that they are more likely to have been examined for malware.

There is no total solution to this problem unless Google chooses to take the same path as Apple and lock down its eco-system. Even then, there are occasional bad Apples. The best thing we as users can do is be suspicious.

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Another bunch of 25 Apps to remove if they are on your device still. This malware captures your Facebook password as well as possibly opening up other sign ins to being compromised (if you use Facebook’s proof of ID sign in).

The malware was discovered and reported by Evina (https://www.evina.com/they-steal-your-facebook/).

The list of Apps (from the article) is:

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