Google removes 85 dangerous apps from Android Play Store, check this list to ensure they are not in your phone

HIGHLIGHTS

• These apps were available in the form of game, TV, and remote control simulator apps.
• These apps have been downloaded over nine million times from the Play Store.
• The researchers found another type of fake apps also that exhibited a different type of ad-showing behavior.

Google has removed a total of 85 malicious apps from Play Store after security researchers found these apps to be a disguise of an adware family. These apps were available in the form of game, TV, and remote control simulator apps on the Android Play Store.

The issue was first reported by the security researchers at Trend Micro. "This adware is capable of displaying full-screen ads, hiding itself, monitoring a device's screen unlocking functionality, and running in the mobile device's background," said the researchers at Trend Micro in the blog.

According to the blog post, these apps have been downloaded over nine million times from the Play Store with one of the apps named "Easy Universal TV Remote" has alone been downloaded over 5 million times. It is the most downloaded apps among the list of all 85 adware apps. The app also received multiple comments until the time it was available on the Play Store.

Despite coming from different developers and signed by different APK public key certificates, the apps exhibited same source code and shared the same source code.

So what harm could these apps actually cause you? Once downloaded and launched, these apps display a full-screen pop-up ad asking you repeatedly to press various buttons to continue. Every new page in the steps would open a new ad page. This would happen again and again until the app finally crashed. 
Some of the malware apps would disappear after showing that it is buffering . These apps would still run in the background and show up in every half an hour on the device.

The researchers found another type of fake apps also that exhibited a different type of ad-showing behavior. These apps would track the screen unlocking action and display ads every time user locked the phone's screen. 
This is not that Google has removed such click fraud apps from the Play Store. The tech giant in November removed 13 malicious apps from Play Store after they were found to lack legitimate functionality. Later in December, it removed another 22 fake apps for having a backdoor built into them that helped the apps do ad-fraud.

Here is the list of some of the malicious apps that you should not have on your phone:

-- SPORT TV
-- Prado Parking Simulator 3D
-- TV WORLD
-- City Extremepolis 100
-- American Muscle Car
-- Idle Drift
-- Offroad Extreme
-- Remote Control
-- Moto Racing
-- TV Remote
-- A/C Remote
-- Bus Driver
-- Trump Stickers 
-- Love Stickers
-- TV EN ESPAÑOL
-- Christmas Stickers
-- Parking Game
-- TV EN ESPAÑOL
-- TV IN SPANISH
-- Brasil TV
-- Nigeria TV 
-- WORLD TV 
-- Drift Car Racing Driving 
-- BRASIL TV 
-- Golden 
-- TV IN ENGLISH 
-- Racing in Car 3D Game 
-- Mustang Monster Truck Stunts 
-- TDT España 
-- Brasil TV 
-- Challenge Car Stunts Game 
-- Prado Car 
-- UK TV 
-- POLSKA TV 
-- Universal TV Remote 
-- Bus Simulator Pro 
-- Photo Editor Collage 1
-- Spanish TV 
-- Kisses 
-- Prado Parking City 
-- SPORT TV 
-- Pirate Story 
-- Extreme Trucks 
-- Canais de TV do Brasil 
-- Prado Car 10 
-- TV SPANISH 
-- Canada TV Channels 1
-- Prado Parking 
-- 3D Racing 
-- TV 
-- USA TV 50,000 
-- GA Player 
-- Real Drone Simulator 
-- PORTUGAL TV 
-- SPORT TV 1
-- SOUTH AFRICA TV 
-- 3d Monster Truck 
-- ITALIA TV 
-- Vietnam TV 
-- Movies Stickers 
-- Police Chase 
-- South Africa TV 
-- Garage Door Remote 
-- Racing Car 3D 
-- TV 
-- TV Colombia 
-- Racing Car 3D Game 
-- World Tv 
-- FRANCE TV 
-- Hearts 
-- TV of the World 
-- WORLD TV 
-- ESPAÑA TV 
-- TV IN ENGLISH 
-- TV World Channel 
-- Televisão do Brasil 
-- CHILE TV