Since the beginning of this year, Slovakia-based security company ESET says it has observed an alarming increase in fraudulent lending apps on Android that present themselves as “legitimate personal lending services, promising quick and easy access to personal consumer funds.”
There have been approximately 12 million downloads of the SpyLoan app from the Play Store.
“Despite their appealing descriptions, these services are actually designed to defraud users by offering them high-interest loans while collecting victims’ personal and financial information for blackmail,” ESET stated. Therefore, ESET identified these applications as SpyLoan, directly referring to the spyware functionality combined with their loan offers.
A report by Dark Reading indicates that SpyLoan apps present themselves as legitimate financial services for personal loans, promising easy access to funds. This is done to trick users into signing up for high interest rates. During the registration process, scammers also collect victims' personal and financial information to extort money from them. Victims of SpyLoan apps report that the annual cost of loans offered on these apps is much higher than regulated and the loan terms are shorter. These loans are marketed through SMS messages and social media.
The list of 17 SpyLoan apps that Google has removed from the Play Store includes AA Kredit, Amor Cash, GuayabaCash, EasyCredit, Cashwow, CrediBus, FlashLoan, PréstamosCrédito, Préstamos De Crédito-YumiCash, Go Crédito, Instantáneo Préstamo, Cartera grande, Rápido Crédito, Finupp Lending, 4S Cash, TrueNaira, and EasyCash.
ESET stated that these apps targeted users living in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America. According to ESET, they identified 18 SpyLoan apps and reported them to Google before 17 of them were removed from the Android app store. These apps had a combined total of over 12 million downloads before being removed. The only remaining app in the report has since changed its behavior, and therefore ESET no longer detects it as a SpyLoan app.
Source link
Comment (0)