Other types of fraudulent apps begin charging a hefty weekly subscription fee a few days after the app is installed or even sign the user up for premium SMS subscriptions. Needless to say, all the money invested is sent straight to the cybercriminals.

The app brings the user to a fake website where you can “raise your investment capital”. Scam apps targeting Russian-speaking usersĪnother common scheme deployed by scammers are fraudulent trading apps which grant access to an investment platform for certain gas stocks. Once the money has been transferred, the app’s objective is considered achieved, and the user receives nothing in return. In order to claim their benefits however, users are told they need to pay a commission to cover the transfer cost or legal assistance. The mobile apps redirect to a webpage where users are prompted to enter personal data and shown a large sum of money they’re supposedly entitled to. One of the schemes used by scammers which has been becoming more popular since last year are scam apps for receiving social benefits. These types of apps occupy seven out of the twenty places in our malware ranking for Q1. It’s not uncommon for apps published in the store to be accompanied by inflated ratings with fake reviews posted on the page for the app which are of course all positive. What makes this quarter interesting is that many different fraudulent apps are distributed via official app stores. Number of attacks targeting users of Kaspersky mobile solutions, Q1 2020 - Q1 2022 ( download)