Google has removed three malicious apps from its Play Store. These Android apps include Magic Photo Lab – Photo Editor, Blender Photo Editor-Easy Photo Background Editor and Pics Photo Motion Edit 2021. According to Google, these apps were stealing the personal information and money of the users. Although the apps are no longer on Play Store, Google advises users to delete them from their devices immediately.
Kaspersky, a security firm, revealed that the three apps were using Facebook logins to trick users and accessing their bank accounts. “Login with Facebook” is a common option that several apps and web portals provide to users. Many users choose to go ahead with this option so that they don’t have to create a new account and save time. According to Kaspersky, these apps were using this sign-in data to steal users’ credentials and access their personal information.
How can users stay safe from such apps
Users who already use these three apps,’ Magic Photo Lab – Photo Editor’, ‘Blender Photo Editor-Easy Photo Background Editor’ and ‘Pics Photo Motion Edit 2021’, will need to uninstall it manually from the devices. In addition to this, they should also change their Facebook login passwords, just to be safe.
From now onwards, users should try using popular photo-editing apps so that the chances of getting their data stolen are slim. Additionally, users should also be careful while downloading an app from any app store. They should always look for grammatical and factual errors as such apps might be shady and can be unsafe for your data. Many times, the apps look legitimate but are actually fake.
For the unaware, Google had recently banned 150 android apps from the Play Store due to privacy concerns. These apps were using a GriftHorse Trojan malware that infiltrate devices. Once the apps were installed, users were bombarded with several alerts informing users that they have won prizes and they can claim it immediately.
As soon as the user clicks on it, the malware redirects the user to a page where they have to enter their phone number for verification. In reality, users were being tricked into submitting their details to a premium SMS service that starts charging €30 (approx Rs 2,500) per month.
The post Google bans 3 malicious apps from Play Store for stealing personal data: Delete them right now appeared first on BGR India.
