About 93,000 users paid for 172 non-operational Android apps purporting to offer cloud mining services. Lookout researchers said.
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#BREAKING: @LookoutThreats has identified nearly 200 #Android apps both on and off #GooglePlay that have scammed at more than 93,000 people with fake #cryptocurrency mining services. Check out this blog by Ioannis Gasparis to learn more. https://t.co/QSzCaBfzLc pic.twitter.com/1jxpWVw0hH
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— Lookout (@Lookout) July 7, 2021
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Twenty-five of them were sold on Google Play, the rest through third-party stores.
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Lookout split the fake programs into two separate families, BitScam (83,800 installs) and CloudScam (9,600 installs). Neither of them had a cloud mining function.
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In total, the criminals earned more than $350,000 from selling the apps and updates to them.
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\”These programs went largely unnoticed because they essentially do nothing harmful. They are merely shells designed to attract cryptocurrency enthusiasts and collect money for non-existent services,\” Lookout said.
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The fakes have now been removed from Google Play, but may still spread through third-party stores.
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In May, the Pi Network app, which enables mining cryptocurrency on a mobile device, was suspected of involvement in the leakage of Vietnamese users’ personal data.
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