How to tell if you’ve been scammed by Fleeceware apps

Fleeceware is one of the worst scams you can deal with on your device because it has one goal – to extract as much money from you as possible. It usually accomplishes this do not by dropping malware on your device or forcing you to do something; instead, fleece items lurk in plain sight, relying on a user’s misunderstanding or negligence to rack up large loads.

Worse yet, most app stores have a harder time reporting these apps – if they do – because they don’t contain bad malware. They are just bad actors, and a developer is free to sell apps and services at whatever price they choose. As long as an app is read according to the rules of an app store, the practice of tricking users into making a $ 100 purchase from a fake in-app purchase, for example, is not. often something that is easily detected without a number of people reporting the app or complaining directly. Even then, that might not be enough to force an app to be deleted.

Avast recently discovered 204 Fleeceware apps living on Apple’s and Google’s app stores. Considering the number of apps available, that doesn’t seem to matter until you look at the other stats: more than one billion total downloads and over $ 400 million in revenue. Yuck.

Polar apps discovered mainly consist of musical instrument apps, palm readers, image editors, camera filters, fortune tellers, QR code readers and PDFs and “slime simulators”. While apps usually serve their purpose, it is unlikely that a user will knowingly want to pay such a large recurring fee for these apps, especially when there are cheaper or even free alternatives on the market.

It seems part of Fleeceware’s strategy is to target a younger audience through playful themes and eye-catching popular social media ads with promises of “free installation” or “free download”. By the time the parents notice the weekly payouts, the polar bears may have already taken out significant sums.

So how do you know if you’ve been sucked? To get started, check your active purchases and subscriptions:

ios

• To verify past purchases: App Store> Apple ID (upper right corner) > Purchased
• To check past purchases (with payments): App Store> Apple ID (upper right corner) > Apple ID (your name / email address) > Purchase history (Scroll down a bit)
• To check active subscriptions: App Store> Apple ID (upper right corner) > Subscriptions

Android

• To check past purchases (with payments): Play Store> Hamburger Icon (upper left corner) > Account> Purchase history
• To check active subscriptions : Play Store> Hamburger Icon (upper left corner) > Subscriptions

You’ll be able to quickly see if you’ve made any in-app purchases that look suspicious after the fact. Likewise, if you signed up for expensive subscriptions that you haven’t already noticed through your monthly credit card statements, you will be able to see them clearly. And it goes without saying, but if you pay regular cash to access something you don’t need, cancel the subscription.

Of course, a better way is to avoid the fleeces in the first place. It’s easy enough to avoid bogus apps on Android and iOS, but I also avoid technology quite a bit in this regard: I don’t click or tap on ads for apps, nor do I download apps that have bad ratings, reviews that are poorly written, or whose descriptions or screenshots only look disabled. And if I ever come across a “pay to unlock” or “pay to subscribe” – sometimes even just a free trial – I tend to abandon the app. Unless I review them for Lifehacker, I only pay for apps that have been critically reviewed or recommended by others.

Of course, you can always check what in-app purchases an app offers through its product page on the Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store. If a seemingly ho-hum app offers $ 500 subscriptions, there’s a good chance you won’t need them on your phone to get started.

And, of course, beware of anything that sounds too good to be true. Check the details before signing up, especially the terms of things like free trials (a few days? A week? A month?), Billing for subscriptions (weekly? Monthly?), Price changes (X for one period of time, Y for another) and blatant baits and switches (a price advertised in the app, but a much higher actual price in the pop-up payment window that appears). You may need to delve into an app, including looking for almost hidden tiny text, to get the truth.

If in doubt, if you’re doing a lot of work to verify an app and its legitimacy, that should be a sign that something is wrong. Good apps make it very easy to see what you are buying and what you are getting; scam apps try to confuse you. Unfortunately, poorly designed but honest apps can fall somewhere in between, but ask yourself: really do you need it on your device? Surely there is a compelling alternative which is not so difficult.