If you’re among the 100,000+ Android users who’ve installed these four apps, it’s time to hit delete

Remember the good old days when we used to issue an Android malware alert every few months or so? Despite Google’s regular assurances to the contrary, it feels like cybersecurity experts and researchers are discovering fresh batches of malicious apps running rampant in the Play Store more and more often, although many of these titles are at least stopped and annihilated before they can rack up worrying numbers of downloads.

That’s… not quite what we can say about the newest such group detected and confirmed by Pradeo to carry a type of “fleeceware” colloquially referred to by the collective name Joker. While all four apps listed below seem to have disappeared from Google Play in the wake of this report, their installation totals had already managed to approach dangerous territory:
  • Smart SMS Messages – 50,000+
  • Blood Pressure Monitor – 10,000+
  • Voice Languages Translator – 10,000+
  • Quick Text SMS – 10,000+
As many of you mobile security enthusiasts out there are probably well aware, Joker is by no means a new threat, lurking in the Play Store’s shadows for several years now as it makes its way from a generically named app to another… thousand rather discreetly, subscribing users to bogus “premium” services without their approval (or even knowledge) and thus slowly draining their bank accounts.

In addition to deleting the four aforementioned malicious apps from your Android phone or tablet, which is naturally the first thing you should do when threatened by a disease of this sort, it might be a good idea to check your bank statements for any unauthorized or shady payments and, if possible, change your financial login credentials just to be extra-safe.

Because Joker-infected apps will often “drop” other mischievous apps without user authorization, it’s generally wise to comb through your full list of installed titles from time to time and try to remember if you actually downloaded them all while also asking yourself if you truly need everything that’s in there. 

Last but not least, getting ExpressVPN could save you a lot of trouble in the future, protecting your online privacy and improving your mobile security at a relatively low (monthly or yearly) cost with a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee included.

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