More than 500,000 people have downloaded malware-infected games on the Google Play Store – here are the 13 apps involved

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Antonio Villas-Boas / Business Insider

Google has removed several games from its Play Store to contain malware.
The games, which were all driving simulators, forced users to download an additional application that allowed them to have full network access to their device.
If you have downloaded any of the applications, the best is to reset your device after saving your photos, text messages and anything else you want to keep.

Google has removed several games from the Google Play Store due to malware, software that may affect your device, access sensitive information, or stream ads when you use a device.

Security researcher Lukas Stefanko of the ESET digital security company discovered that the games contained malware and posted their titles on Twitter. A total of 13 games have been removed, all from the same developer – Luiz O Pinto.

All games are driving simulators with different themes, such as racing luxury cars or driving fire trucks. But none of the games would work, according to Stefanko. After installation, the game supposedly asked the user to download an additional item called "Game Center". When a user was trying to open the game, it closed almost immediately and its icon was hidden.

This additional article – Game Center – would then get full network access to a user's device and display ads when the device was unlocked, according to Stefankos. It could also potentially record incoming and outgoing network traffic from devices.

Two of the apps had trends on the Google Play Store, making them easier to find than non-oriented apps, and therefore more likely to be installed. Stefanko estimates that the games have been installed more than 560,000 times from the Google Play Store.

The way two games were evolving in the Google Play Store was a mystery when they did not work. But this is not the first time apps are removed from Google's Play Store to contain malware, and this could erode the trust of Android users in the Play Store, especially for developers smaller and relatively unknown applications.

If you have downloaded any of the applications below, the best is to reset your device after saving your photos, text messages and anything else you want to keep. If this is too radical, you can try to uninstall the offending application and download an anti-malware application, such as Malwarebytes, to remove the malware.

Some legitimate games – or at least we think they're legitimate – have similar titles and images. You should look for any application published by "Luiz O Pinto".

Check out 13 games removed from the Google Play Store to detect malware: