{"id":45740,"date":"2021-07-08T12:40:33","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T09:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=45740"},"modified":"2025-09-01T12:40:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T09:40:52","slug":"experts-identify-172-fraudulent-android-apps-for-mining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/experts-identify-172-fraudulent-android-apps-for-mining\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts identify 172 fraudulent Android apps for mining."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>About 93,000 users paid for 172 non-operational Android apps purporting to offer cloud mining services. Lookout researchers said.<\/p>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\\\"twitter-tweet\\\"><p>\\n<\/p>\n<p dir=\\\"ltr\\\" lang=\\\"en\\\"><a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BREAKING?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">#BREAKING<\/a>: <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LookoutThreats?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">@LookoutThreats<\/a> has identified nearly 200 <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Android?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">#Android<\/a> apps both on and off <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/GooglePlay?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">#GooglePlay<\/a> that have scammed at more than 93,000 people with fake <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/cryptocurrency?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">#cryptocurrency<\/a> mining services. Check out this blog by Ioannis Gasparis to learn more. <a href=\\\"https:\/\/t.co\/QSzCaBfzLc\\\">https:\/\/t.co\/QSzCaBfzLc<\/a> <a href=\\\"https:\/\/t.co\/1jxpWVw0hH\\\">pic.twitter.com\/1jxpWVw0hH<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Lookout (@Lookout) <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Lookout\/status\/1412713078949650433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">July 7, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<p><script async=\\\"\\\" src=\\\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\\\" charset=\\\"utf-8\\\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-five of them were sold on Google Play, the rest through third-party stores.<\/p>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<p>In total, the criminals earned more than $350,000 from selling the apps and updates to them.<\/p>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\\&#8221;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,\\&#8221; Lookout said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<p>The fakes have now been removed from Google Play, but may still spread through third-party stores.<\/p>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<p>In May, the Pi Network app, which enables mining cryptocurrency on a mobile device, <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/pi-networks-mining-app-linked-to-17-gb-vietnamese-users-data-leak\">was suspected of involvement in the leakage<\/a> of Vietnamese users&#8217; personal data.<\/p>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to ForkLog news on Telegram: <a href=\\\"https:\/\/t.me\/forklogfeed\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" rel=\\\"nofollow noopener\\\">ForkLog Feed<\/a> \u2014 the full news feed, <a href=\\\"https:\/\/telegram.me\/forklog\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" rel=\\\"nofollow noopener\\\">ForkLog<\/a> \u2014 the most important news, infographics and opinions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About 93,000 users paid for 172 non-operational Android apps purporting to offer cloud mining services, according to Lookout researchers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1634,1480,738],"class_list":["post-45740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-android","tag-blockchain-apps","tag-google"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"21","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45742,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45740\/revisions\/45742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}