Google has removed 25 apps from Play Store for phishing Facebook credentials

Android powers more than five times as many smartphones and tablets as iOS. As a result, the number of apps on the Google Play Store is considerably higher than Apple’s App Store and that makes the app review process less rigorous for Android. Predictably, that allows many malicious apps to pass through the review process much more easily and remain on the Play Store until reported for chicanery. Google, however, does act promptly in removing malicious apps, especially when it comes to serious allegations like phishing. The internet giant has now struck down 25 apps for deceiving users and logging Facebook login credentials, as per a recent report.

French cyber-security agency Evina recently reported 25 malicious apps to Google in May for siphoning off users’ Facebook login details. This was accomplished by creating a faux login page on top of the actual Facebook’s login page. The malicious elements were disguised by legit functionality in these apps. Evina notes that these apps were masquerading as wallpaper apps, image and video editors, flashlight apps, games, and file managers on the Google Play Store.

Fake Facebook login page in the overlay; Image courtesy of Evina

The French agent also told ZDNet that some of these malicious apps had been on the Google Play Store for over a year. Google removed them after validating the findings in early June. While removing apps from the Play Store, Google also disables them on users’ smartphones and informs them through the Play Protect feature.

The list of apps removed by Google includes:

App Name	Package	No. of installs
Super Wallpapers Flashlight	com.wallpaper.flashlight.compass	500000+
Padenatef	com.sun.newjbq.beijing.ten	500000+
Wallpaper Level	com.liapp.level	100000+
Contour level wallpaper	com.communication.walllevel	100000+
iPlayer & iWallpaper	com.ldl.videoedit.iwallpapers	100000+
Video Maker	com.androidapp.videosedit.v	100000+
Color Wallpapers	com.play.ljj.wallpapercomapss	100000+
Pedometer	com.baidu.news.pedometer	100000+
Powerful Flashlight	com.meituanybw.flash	100000+
Super Bright Flashlight	com.tqyapp.sb.flashlight	100000+
Super Flashlight	com.superapp.xincheng	100000+
Solitaire Game	com.game.tqsolitaire	100000+
Accurate scanning of Meade	com.tqyapp.qr	50000+
Classic card game	com.card.solitairenew	50000+
Junk file cleaning	com.xdapp.cleaning	50000+
Synthetic Z	com.tqygame.synthetic	50000+
File Manager	com.smt.filemanager	50000+
Composite Z	com.game.hcz	50000+
Screenshot Capture	com.tianqiyang.lww.screenedit	10000+
Daily Horoscope Wallpapers	com.tianqiyang.lww.constellation	10000+
Wuxia Reader	com.wuxia.reader	10000+
Plus Weather	com.plus.android.weather	10000+
Anime Live Wallpaper	com.tqyapp.chuangtai	100
iHealth Step Counter	com.tiantian.lang.tencent	–
com.tgyapp.fiction	com.tgyapp.fiction	–

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