It wasn’t long ago that Minecraft was connected to a scareware campaign that preyed on users looking for Minecraft cheats. Today, ESET researchers report another misuse of this popular app: fake Minecraft mods on Google Play are pestering Android gamers with aggressive ads and scam activity. So far players have been exposed to 87 fake mods, and up to 990,000 users have installed them.
ESET researchers have divided malicious activity connected to fake mods for Minecraft into two main categories: ad-displaying downloaders, detected by ESET as Android/TrojanDownloader.Agent.JL and fake apps redirecting users to scam websites, detected by ESET as Android/FakeApp.FG.
For Android/TrojanDownloader.Agent.JL, ESET reports 14 fake apps impersonating Minecraft mods with up to 80,000 installs. Because these fake mods apps only display aggressive ads, poor reviews are very common.
For the Android/FakeApp.FG, ESET has reported 73 instances using redirects to scam websites that reached up to 910,000 installs since being uploaded to Google Play between January and March 2017. Once launched, the apps display a screen with a download button. Clicking the button does not download any mods; instead, it redirects the user to a website opened in a browser and displays all kinds of obtrusive content.
The full analysis of fake mods for Minecraft on Google Play is now available on WeLiveSecurity.com.
In addition to only downloading apps from the official app store, it is also recommended that users use a mobile security product like ESET Mobile Security to help detect and flag malicious activity.
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