In an effort to make the crypto space a safer place, cybersecurity company Trend Micro sniffs out any cryptocurrency cloud mining apps that are deceptive.
The report writes:
“We recently discovered eight deceptive mobile apps that masquerade as cryptocurrency cloud mining applications … where users can earn cryptocurrency by investing money into a cloud-mining operation.”
The company has discovered that these apps trick users into watching ads, paying for subscription-based services that cost $15 per month on average, and paying for increased mining capabilities without receiving anything in return.
The apps that were removed from the Google Play Stores are:
- BitFunds – Crypto Cloud Mining
- Bitcoin Miner – Cloud Mining
- Bitcoin (BTC) – Pool Mining Cloud Wallet
- Crypto Holic – Bitcoin Cloud Mining
- Daily Bitcoin Rewards – Cloud Based Mining System
- Bitcoin 2021
- MineBit Pro – Crypto Cloud Mining & btc miner
- Ethereum (ETH) – Pool Mining Cloud
Crypto Holic and Daily Bitcoin Rewards are paid apps, which are priced $12.99 and $5.99 respectively.
These are only a small percentage of the concerning applications that are still floating around in the app store today. Micro Trend detected more than 120 fake cryptocurrency mining apps that have yet to be removed. These do not actually have crypto mining capabilities and instead earn ad revenues by tricking victims into watching in-app ads.
Micro Trend has also found out that these apps prompted users to click on ads, instead of getting them to pay for increased computing power. Some deceived the users into inviting several friends to download the app to unlock withdrawal interface, only for the users to find out that they are unable to withdraw the cryptocurrency anyway.
