These 8 famous applications disappear due to a possible scam

Eight applications included in the Android Play Store would have formed an 'advertising fraud scheme that could have stolen millions of dollars'. Seven of the eight apps discovered belonged, all of them, to the same developer, Cheetah Mobile, a Chinese company listed on the New York Stock Market. A company, by the way, that already had problems in the past when it was accused of fraudulent practices by a short-selling investment firm, something that the accused company categorically denied, according to BuzzFeed.

8 applications that fooled Google

The eighth of the applications, although it does not belong to Cheetah, it does have ties to the company. This application is owned by Kika Tech, a firm that received a large investment from it in 2016. Both brands claim that their applications have no less than 700 million active users per month. The BuzzFeed page itself has been denouncing this practice for some time, which would consist of an alleged ad fraud scheme that tracks user behavior in dozens of Android applications to generate false traffic and thus steal money from advertisers. In this way, Google denounced that more than 10 million dollars were stolen, both from the big G and its partners, subsequently eliminating numerous applications that followed this scheme.

Actually, app users don't lose any money from this fraudulent scheme. The only inconvenience they suffer from is battery drain and the mysterious consumption of Internet data, a consequence of the fraudulent transactions that these applications originate. This potential fraud scheme is based on the fact that many app developers pay a fee to partners who help get apps downloaded by users. The Kochava company discovered in a report that applications from the companies Cheetah and Kika Tech could be tracking users when they downloaded new applications, using that data to claim money for the download , totally inappropriate. This practice is known as ‘Click Flooding’ or ‘Click Injection’.

What are these affected applications?

8 applications that are very popular and that you probably have had on your mobile at some time. They are as follows.

• Clean Master. Something like the mobile equivalent of the Ccleaner PC application. An application that cleans your mobile of useless files and optimizes its RAM.
• Security Master. One of many antiviruses that populate the official Google Play application repository.
• CM Launcher 3D. An application launcher with a very colorful and attractive 3D interface for the general public.
• Kika Keyboard. A keyboard with a thousand and one functions such as stickers, emoticons, etc.

• Battery Doctor. One of the most popular battery management applications. It claimed to ensure the he alth of your battery, adapting the charge to optimize its use and with useful tools such as calibration.
• Cheetah Keyboard. Another keyboard with so many other added features.
• CM Locker. A security tool to encrypt applications installed on your mobile.
• CM File Manager. An Android file manager to locate all the folders on your phone.

Via | BuzzFeed