Google has removed apps involved in an ad fraud scheme, which had amassed over 56 million downloads. In this fraudulent scheme, instead of compromising data or harming devices, the fraudsters continued to charge advertisers by displaying fake users.
Google has removed over 180 fraudulent apps from its Play Store. These apps, which were involved in an ad fraud scheme, had accumulated more than 56 million downloads, leading to losses for users, advertisers, and app developers. According to a Forbes report, the tech company attempted to address the issue by releasing a security patch, but since this didn’t fully resolve the problem, Google was forced to take the step of removing the fraudulent apps from the Play Store.
This is how the new ad fraud works
Let us tell you that the ad fraud scheme is different from common malware. In this fraud scheme, instead of stealing data or damaging the device, the fraudsters keep getting payments from advertisers by showing them fake users.
These fake interactions make it look like ads are being shown to real users, when these ads are not. In some cases, users do see the ads, but seeing too many ads spoils the user’s app experience, thereby lowering the app’s rating on the Play Store.
The fraudsters behind this plan have created deceptive apps and displayed them in popular categories. Users would unknowingly download these apps, and then they would be bombarded with unnecessary apps. It also managed to bypass Google Play Protect, which is Android’s integrated security feature to protect against harmful apps. So if you have any such apps on your phone, uninstall or delete them immediately.
