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Android users who think that apps downloaded from the Google Play Store are safe and secure are often wrong. Malware and other fraudulent applications are often prevalent in the Google Play Store. According to a new report, seven applications from Cheetah Mobile and one from Kika Tech, which total 2 billion downloads via Google Play, are part of a large advertising fraud plan. Both companies are related. Kika Tech would have had a major investment from Cheetah in 2016.
The research firm Kochava revealed the anti-fraud advertising scheme and, according to the researchers, these fraudulent applications have stolen millions of dollars. Cheetah and Kika together claim to have 700 million monthly active users accessing their mobile apps. While these apps allegedly stole money from advertisers rather than from the device owner, it would point to a reduction in device autonomy as the battery is exhausted by illegitimate transactions taking place in the background.
The applications that Cheetah and Kika used in the advertising scheme followed the moment when users downloaded new applications and used this data to request credit for having caused the download. Many developer partners pay between 50 cents and US $ 3 to encourage users to download their apps. This is so that both companies allegedly used their harmful apps to make money. This type of fraud is known as flooding of clicks and clicks, which allows the author to receive a premium for the installation of apps while it has nothing to do with it. the actual installation.
Grant Simmons, head of customer analysis at Kochava, said: "It's theft, no other way of saying it." The Cheetah and Kika applications that have been identified in the fraud scheme include Clean Master, Security Master, CM Launcher 3D, Kika Keyboard, Battery Doctor, Cheetah Keyboard, CM Locker and CM File Manager.
Kochava sent Kika Tech a video of his Kika Keyboard application engaging in fraudulent practices and Kika's US general manager, Marc Richardson, stated that Kika "had no intention of engaging in fraudulent practices" . Richardson continued, "Kika Keyboard is a great, well-known application that helps its users communicate in different ways and we are extremely disappointed to learn about these flooding and injection practices and we thank you for your attention. "
Kika's CEO says the company is investigating fraudulent practices and claims that any advertising fraud has occurred without his knowledge. Kochava indicates that the application Kika Keyboard uses the company's proprietary software to commit fraud and that functions are integrated with the application itself. Simmons, of Kochava, said: "No one came in and did not handle anything." Kochava counted both Cheetah and Kika as customers when he unveiled to the developers the alleged click fraud. This fraud again highlights the lax security of the Google Play store and the slowness with which Google reacts to fraudulent apps when they are discovered.
Recently, gaming applications containing malware that claimed to drive simulators of various types proved to be full of malware and had been downloaded 580,000 times in total. Earlier this year, a QR code reader application downloaded more than 500,000 times was infected with malware.
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