Remove This Android Keyboard Malware That Makes You Buy Expensive Subscriptions
Hand over to malware creators; they are definitely creative. Unfortunately, if you’ve been one of the 10+ million downloads or 40+ million users of the ai.type Android app (which is also available in the Apple App Store ), you’ve just downloaded some pretty nasty malware on your device – malware that wants to keep going. automatically spend money.
As described by Upstream’s Secure-D , the app (which has since been removed from Google Play) began to generate fake clicks on advertisements in order to make money for malware creators. And that’s not the worst, according to the Secure-D blog post:
“The Secure-D experts found confirmation texts for premium digital services on both devices, confirming unsolicited subscriptions that occurred without any user intervention.”
Basically, the malware could open landing pages in the background of your device, ensuring that you didn’t notice anything, and automatically proceed to a successful subscription to the service. On the positive side, though, Ai.type targeted users in 13 countries, mainly Egypt and Brazil, where it could add a subscription to a user’s prepaid minutes of mobile airtime.
However, if you’ve installed ai.type that masquerades as a useful “personalized keyboard”, you’ll want to remove it from your phone right now. And you need to take some time to check for fraud, Secure-D warns :
“Upstream recommends all users who have downloaded ai.type to check their phones for unusual behavior. Users should check their phones regularly and remove any malware detected. They should also check their accounts for unwanted or unexpected charges for accessing paid data services and look for signs of increased data usage that could indicate a malicious application is using data in the background. ”
As always, make sure you install apps from trusted sources and, more importantly, read app reviews – and any third-party reviews, if any – before you pull the trigger and download anything that seems a little out of place. … Consider the Apple App Store description of ai.type, which already sounds as vague as it is strange:
“Ai.type is the smartest and most personalized keyboard for iPhone and iPad. Built-in prediction, completion and auto-correction. With over 40 million users worldwide, we are transforming the messaging experience.
Our app lets you type better and faster by learning your writing style, and lets you customize and personalize your keyboard just the way you like it. “
Ask yourself: Do you really need such an application on your Android device? Does it give you advanced functionality that you don’t already have? Should you ask for permissions? Probably no. Taking a minute to analyze your need for an app, especially one that seems a little out of the ordinary, is one of the best ways to avoid installing something you don’t need on your device.