Stalker Android Apps with Thousands of Downloads Found in Google Play Store

A new batch of malicious apps was detected in the Google Play Store by security vendor Avast, and this time the purpose was to access information like the location of the user and collect contacts, SMS, and call history.

The stalkware apps, as they are called, reached a combined download count of 130,000, and the most downloaded of them were Spy Tracker and SMS Tacker, both with more than 50,000 hits each.

Avast says the apps have already been removed by Google, but it’s obviously not known how many victims they managed to make during the time they were listed in the Play store.

The apps relied on a complex system to make sure they compromise Android devices.

“The apps require the snoop to have access to the phone they want to spy on. The snoop can download the apps from the Google Play Store and install them on the target device. The app then prompts the person who installed the app to enter their email address and password. The spying app is sent there,” Avast explains.

Stealing SMS and call history

Additionally, very often these apps tried to hide any evidence of a malicious purpose, with no icon displayed on the device, making it very difficult for the user to figure out that something was going on.

When the attack was complete, these apps started collecting private information belonging to the user, including things like the location, contacts, SMS, and call history.

The apps, whose names you can find at the end of the article, promised features to monitor employees and children.

“They promote criminal behavior, and can be abused by employers, stalkers or abusive partners to spy on their victims. We classify such apps as stalkerware, and using apklab.io we can identify such apps quickly, and collaborate with Google to get them removed,” Nikolaos Chrysaidos, Avast’s head of mobile threat intelligence and security.

The seven apps, which have already been removed from the Play Store, are included in the listed below: