Written by Lukas Stefanko, Malware Researcher at ESET<\/p>\n
It seems that tricksters on Google Play have found another way to make their deceptive apps appear more trustworthy to users \u2013 that is, at least at first sight. <\/p>\n
The trick takes advantage of the fact that apart from app icon and name, there is one more element the user sees when browsing apps \u2013 the developer name, displayed just below the app name. And since unknown developer names are no use for popularity-boosting purposes anyway, some app authors have been setting fictitious, high numbers of installs as their developer names, in an effort to look like established developers with vast userbases.<\/p>\n
We have discovered hundreds of apps using this and similar tricks to deceive users. The apps we\u2019ve analyzed were either misleading users about their functionality or had no functionality at all, yet most display many advertisements. <\/p>\n
Figure 1 \u2013 Apps uploaded to Google Play under the developer name \u201cInstalls 1,000,000,000 – 5,000,000,000\u201d<\/p>\n
Figure 2 \u2013 Apps uploaded to Google Play under the developer name \u201c100 Million Downloads\u201d<\/p>\n
The freedom to set any number of choice as developer name has inspired some remarkably ambitious claims \u2013 one game developer, for instance, would like users to believe his games have been installed more than five billion times. (Note: the highest-ranking apps in terms of number of installs fall into the category \u201c1,000,000,000+\u201d at the time of writing; this category includes Google Play itself, Gmail, Facebook, WhatsApp, Skype, etc.)<\/p>\n
Figure 3 – Apps uploaded to Google Play under the developer name \u201c5,000,000,000+\u201d<\/p>\n
In one particular case, we saw a developer change his name from a fake installation number to an actual developer name over time, which might indicate the trick is used as a temporary measure aimed at boosting the popularity of newly uploaded apps. <\/p>\n
Figure 4 \u2013 Developer first going by \u201c1,000,000,000\u201d, later changing the name to \u201cDIVID APPS\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides using fake installation numbers to attempt to manipulate users into downloading their apps, some app authors have also been using phrases indicating legitimacy, such as \u201cLegit Apps\u201d, \u201cVerified Applications\u201d, and \u201cTrusted Developers App\u201d. Some also incorporate a check mark symbol, similar to those used as \u201cverified\u201d badges for the accounts of well-known personalities and brands on various social media sites. These are variously included in app icons and names, as well as in developer names. As Google Play probably does not offer a developer account verification service, any app sporting such a tag should necessarily be considered suspicious. <\/p>\n
Figure 5 \u2013 Developers using bogus \u201cverified\u201d check marks to appear more legitimate<\/p>\n
How to stay safe<\/p>\n
The tricks described in this article are simple, yet potentially effective, ways to mislead users, particularly those who choose apps based on popularity. While none of these apps were outright malicious, these techniques could easily be misused by malware authors in the future. Fortunately, the tricks are also simple to spot, if you know what to focus on:<\/p>\n
Make sure to only take the number of installations for each app from the app\u2019s Google Play page, as this is the official number. This will be visible in the \u201cAdditional Information\u201d section at the bottom of the page. <\/p>\n
Keep in mind that Google Play does not have a \u201cVerified\u201d badge signifying the legitimacy of apps. It does have the \u201cEditor\u2019s Choice\u201d category, marked by the Editor\u2019s Choice badge in the top right corner of the app\u2019s Google Play page.<\/p>\n
Make sure you read user reviews before downloading any app.<\/p>\n
If an app only has a small number of real installs, and\/or was only released within the last few days, leave it for others to be the guinea pigs no matter how much you think you want it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Written by Lukas Stefanko, Malware Researcher at ESET It seems that tricksters on Google Play have found another way to make their deceptive apps appear more trustworthy to users \u2013 that is, at least at first sight. The trick takes advantage of the fact that apart from app icon and name, there is one more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":8022,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_pr_autopilot_social_copy":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph_description":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph_image":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph_image_id":0,"_yoast_wpseo_twitter_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter_description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter_image":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter_image_id":0,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_extra_hide_author_box":"","_extra_featured_post":"","_partner_post_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[439],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n