151 Android Apps Banned Due to SMS Fraud

The banned 151 Google Play Store apps were downloaded 790,000 times in Turkey.

Avast is doing extensive research on a scam campaign called UltimaSMS. The campaign consists of applications that can be downloaded from the Google Play Store, and after these applications are installed, they are used to obtain information for users to subscribe to a premium service.

Avast’s research revealed 151 apps linked to the UltimaSMS campaign. At the top of the list are applications such as Ultima Keyboard 3D Pro, VideoMixer Editor Pro, FX Animate Editor Pro and Battery Animation Charge 2021. If you want, you can check the full list of apps on Avast GitHub page.

Users from more than 80 countries have downloaded the scam apps more than 10.5 million times. Turkey is among the top 10 countries where applications are downloaded, and 790,000 downloads were made in our country.

Hidden in many items such as special keyboards, QR code scanners, video and photo editors, spam call blockers, camera filters and games, these software checks the phone’s location, IMEI and phone number to determine the country area code and language.

After opening the application, users are asked for their phone number and sometimes their e-mail address, thus allowing users to access the application’s advertising features. Users subscribe to premium SMS services that charge up to $40 when they provide their details. When apps try to access advertised features, more SMS subscriptions are offered or the app stops working.

Google has already banned all 151 apps flagged in the Play Store, but users may still be using these apps on their devices. To remind you again, users who have any of the listed applications should remove them immediately.

The software giant has done many cleanups on the Play Store in the past, but these are not enough. There are many obscure applications in the Google Play Store, and Google needs to be more restrictive about the applications that enter its platform.