A new Android Joker app, named Color Message, deceived 500,000 Android users. In relation to this, there is a simple way to prevent downloading a Joker malware-infected app.

New Android Joker App Steals Money

Joker, a trojan infection, is one of the most dangerous malware attacks affecting Android users. Cybercriminals usually attach it to Google Play Store apps to make it appear legitimate.

For background information, Google had to remove over 1,700 apps from its Google Play Store after identifying that they carried the malware due to its widespread use.

Despite the fact that these apps were deleted from the Google Play Store after they were discovered, consumers may still have them downloaded and installed on their phones.

In relation to this, Joker was recently discovered hidden in an app that was downloaded 500,000 times, per Pradeo.

Joker is classified as fleeceware since its primary function is to imitate clicks and intercept SMS messages to manipulate users into subscribing to unwanted paid premium services.

Pradeo added that Joker creates an extremely discrete footprint that can be difficult to spot by using as little code as possible and properly hiding it. This malware was discovered in hundreds of applications during the past two years.

Cybersecurity specialists in Pradeo regularly updates an article listing of Joker malware-infected mobile apps available on the Google Play Store. In the most recent update published on Thursday, it has identified an app called Color Message.

Tech Spot reported that Color Message was a program that enabled users to customize their standard SMS messages app. Over 500,000 Android users downloaded it, only to realize its true purpose when it was too late.

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Furthermore, through Pradeo Security's engine, it has revealed that the Color Message application accesses users' contact lists and exfiltrates them over the network. Simultaneously, the software subscribes users to undesired paid services without their knowledge.

The program could disguise its icon once installed, making it difficult to delete.

Additionally, the application's brief terms and conditions are placed on an unbranded one-page blog and it does not identify the range of the Android Joker app's activities on users' devices.

For instance, one of the Joker app victims attempted to contact the app's creator through its legal page's comment area, while other users are directly complaining about the scam in the Google App Store's comment section.

However, it seems that no one was answering the concerns of the Android Joker app victims.

Since it poses a threat to several Android users, Color Message has been removed from Google Play Store and people who have downloaded it should delete it right now.

How to Spot Android Joker Apps?

Apart from the regularly updated article of Cybersecurity researchers of Pradeo, Android users should follow the analyst from Kaspersky named Tatyana Shishkova on Twitter.

In Shishkova's Twitter, she shared several Android Joker apps that people should uninstall and avoid installing.

In her recent post, she identified four Joker-infected apps such as Camera Translator, Smart Emoji Message, Blood Pressure Checker and Imagination Camera.

Moreover, she explained that the Imagination Camera has more than 1,000 installs. However, as of writing, it appears that apps Blood Pressure Checker and Imagination Camera were already deleted.

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