Software firm Dr.Web has discovered new fraudulent activity tracking apps with millions of downloads. Their main draw is that they advertise themselves as health trackers and pedometers that pay you rewards for reaching certain goals.
These three fraudulent applications with supposed functions to take care of your health, count steps on your mobile and others, have accumulated more than 20 million downloads and could considerably affect the performance of your mobile.
Although it has been discovered that they do not keep what they promise and that they can slow down your mobile by filling it with advertising, they are still in the Play Store application store, so be careful with them. If you have them, uninstall them immediately to prevent them from affecting your phone.
How do these apps work?
The main problem detected is that the rewards are impossible to receive , since you have to accumulate a large number of them and watch excessive advertising in order to receive money that probably will not arrive. After viewing the ads, users are advised to watch more to speed up the rewards process .
After all this, the applications did not verify any of the payment related data provided by the users. This makes it even more difficult for apps to think about delivering on their promise. The chances of receiving money from apps are quite small, if not impossible.
Fraudulent apps are:
- Lucky Step – Walking Tracker with 10 million downloads.
- WalkingJoy with 5 million downloads.
- Lucky Habit – Health tracker with 5 million downloads.
Both connect to the same command and control server, so the developer is the same. While you will not earn anything for filling your mobile with advertising, the developers do it every time their users see the ads. It’s all profit for them. You will get tired before you get to claim any collection. Do not waste time on them or let them fill your mobile with ads. Do not install them and if you have them get rid of them as soon as possible.
Previous versions of Lucky Step-Walking Tracker said that users had the option to convert their rewards into gift cards from various online stores. The Lucky Step-Walking Tracker app was updated and the functionality that would convert rewards to cash was removed, making all previously accumulated rewards instantly useless. If you look at the app’s comments, you will see that there are already several users who complain that it is a hoax.
One person complains saying this:
There are many annoying ads that you have to watch to get some coins. This app is a real scam and rubbish and a waste of time and effort.
We recommend that you see the comments and scores of the applications before installing them and if they are not totally trustworthy, do not have them on your mobile.
Another app you should avoid
In addition to those mentioned, there is another fitness app called FitStar that claims to create a personalized weight loss plan for a certain amount of money, initially reduced.
Those who sign up for it do not know that the program is valid for a single day, so at the end of the trial they register for an additional 4 days of service and access to the program completely costs an amount equivalent to almost 100 euros. The app continues to automatically extend subscriptions every 4 days.
It is still in the Google app store and comments about it ensure that if you install it you will not see its icon in the phone’s list of apps, so it becomes difficult to uninstall it. Also, try to access your Facebook or Google data . Don’t install it, and if you have, get rid of it now.
