Scammers are creating deceptive Android apps and distributing them on the Google Play store that purport to mine crypto currencies that are not actually mined. Fortinet accidentally discovered these apps and analyzed them after noticing that they were appearing as miners for currencies that they do not support.
The 3 currencies are Ripple, Cardano and Tether. Since these currencies do not support mining like other currencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum and others), all the apps do is display ads.
In the case of Ripple, the app shows the device’s mining speed – which is a completely random number – and slowly increases the amount of Ripple the user has collected. When the user reaches the amount required to “get paid,” the app is programmed to display the message “Error! Check your wallet address.”.
But since the apps don't mine, you might be wondering what their purpose is. According to Fortinet, the answer is advertising. The app developers are counting on their victims to run their apps all day long to mine as many Ripples as possible. This allows the app to display ads and make money for the developers.
However, this is not the first time we have seen fake mining apps. In the past, ESET has detected similar apps with additional features. Fortinet said that when there are sharp increases in cryptocurrency, such apps are released.
With this in mind, you should be careful about what applications you install on your devices, and under no circumstances do we recommend mining with mobile devices.
