How to protect yourself from fraud applications

There are currently thousands of applications that are utter scams . From those that promise something that they don't do or that directly do not work, to those that are in charge of stealing your user data or including your bank details And many of them are still present both on Google Play and App Store Hidden within legitimate applications that, in some cases, not even the developers themselves know carry it.In fact, some security firms claim that there are 12 million infected mobile phones around the world Figures and data important enough to think carefully whether to download or not an app. Here we tell you how to protect yourself from these apps.

What are fraud applications?

There are different types of fraud applications There are some that have been created directly with reluctance or inexperience, and that do not even reach fulfill the mission for which they were created. These are simply bad applications with no greater danger than wasting the user's time.

However, there are others that are focused on the financial gain of hackers or scammers They are those that are in charge, for example, of to play commercials in the background constantly. This is a constant drain on battery and data for the user, but a scam for advertisers who have paid for ad space that is not actually being used.In any case, a scam that negatively affects everyone.

Other types of scam applications are those that are responsible for stealing user information This theft can be more or less subtle, finding tools that falsify the appearance of other known ones to get the user, deceived, to enter their account and password details, or even bank details. Others include hidden software designed to collect this data and send it to the servers of the person you want to take advantage of.

We must not forget the cases in which applications have malware or viruses capable of hijacking the user's social networks and other functions in exchange for payment Or posing as the police or FBI and requesting a charge for pirated material detected on the terminal.

They are all scammers and unfortunately sometimes bypass the security barriers of Google Play Store and App Store. Many of them these malware find their way into applications without their creators knowing. And it is that some use development tools obtained through the Internet in unreliable places where they introduce malicious code so that it remains hidden in the applications created with it.

How to avoid it?

It is best to always use common sense, even if it is not always the most common sense. On the one hand, it is advisable to focus on downloading applications from official stores. That is, from Google Play and App Store, which, although they are not 100 percent secure, are the ones that put up the most barriers to the introduction of malware.

With this in mind, we must think carefully about what is going to be installed on the mobile and know its qualitiesFor example, if your camera's LED flash only has one color, there's no way you can change that beam of light to different shades. So why install an app that claims to do it? Most likely it is some kind of scam.

It is also recommended to pay attention to the description of the application to see if it has been written by a human or a robot. It may be a bad translation that raises suspicions about its origin or its purpose.

You have to pay attention to the permissions that an application requests when it is installed. This is key in those simple tools that, for example, focus on applying filters to photos. In these cases it does not make sense for the application to have access to the contacts in the calendar, for example, or to other functions that could well contain user information.Could be a scam.

A simple and quick Internet search can be key to avoiding these problems before downloading an application. Just like scrutinizing the comment section of the download page to find out if the tool is compliant or not.

Via PhoneArena