We download apps for our phone and tablets like it's second nature nowadays. But it turns out that some of the apps on the market can be hiding a nasty piece of malware that secretly charges it users.

Malware Infections

In September 2017 the second biggest malware outbreak hit the Google Play store with over 21.1 million devices being infected with a nasty virus dubbed ExpensiveWall.

CheckPoint wrote a blog post about this piece of malware which goes into great detail about ExpensiveWall's capability.

How does an app infect your phone/tablet?

1. The journey begins by a user, unknowingly, downloading an infected app from the Google Play store or Apple store.

2. Once the app has been download the virus can begin it's work. All viruses work in different ways, some start sending fraudulent premium SMS messages that charge a user's account without their knowledge (such as ExpensiveWall). Other's can steal sensitive data, record audio and even capture photos by gaining access to your phone's camera.

All of this happens without the user's knowledge. So theoretically you could have this app on your phone for many months, without really noticing anything untoward.

How do you know what is safe to download?

It's scary when you realise just what these infected apps are capable of! So how can you protect yourself from downloading an infected app?

Firstly, read the reviews before downloading any app. Be aware that app owners will post their own fake reviews, a good indication of a fake review is poor spelling/grammar.

Secondly, if you are in doubt Google the name of the app and see if there are any news articles detailing that the app is in-fact fraudulent.

Finally, if you are still dubious about the app don't download it!

CheckPoint's list of infected apps

CheckPoint released this list of apps that have been reported and logged as infected, so make sure you don't download any of the apps listed below. Equally if you have these apps on either your phone or tablet remove them now.

• I Love Fliter
• Tool Box Pro
• X WALLPAPER
• Horoscope
• X Wallpaper Pro

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