Google has been strict with their policies when it comes to ad frauds and privacy-related issues. But despite these strict policies in place, some apps have managed to slip through them.
Google had to remove a bunch of apps from its Play Store which promised its users, fake giveaways like free sneakers, boots, tickets, coupons and other stuff. But what the App really did was install an ad botnet on the phones.
This discovery was made by a security team at White Op’s Satori Mobile who’s a security firm specialized in recognizing this kind of behaviour by a bot. The company behind this ad fraud is Terracotta. The security firm had been keeping tabs on Terracotta’s activities since late 2019.
After the user installed the apps by Terracotta, the users were asked to keep this app on their phone for 2 weeks. During these 2 weeks, Terracotta generated revenues by launching ads in WebView.
The app names haven’t been revealed by the security firm but you should be aware of such kind of apps to avoid any extra-consumption of data which apps like these might generate.