Scores of Fake ‘Among Us!’ Apps Are Nothing More Than Malware
- There are at least 60 fake ‘Among Us!’ apps out there, coming from nine different developers.
- Most of these apps attempt to drop adware, info-stealers, trojans, and all kinds of malware.
- People are advised to pick the game either from the Google Play Store or the official website.
Security researchers from Wultra have scanned the web for fake ‘Among Us!’ apps after the developer, InnersSloth, received numerous reports from concerned users. What they’ve found was at least 60 fake apps, with 75% of them attempting to install malware onto the end-user devices.
All of these apps are using the real “Among Us!” package name (com.innersloth.spacemafia), acting as true impostors in the spirit of the game, and tricking users into thinking they just got the official app.
There’s a wide range of malware that gets dropped by these fake apps after their installation on unsuspecting people’s devices, from relatively innocuous adware that bombards the victims with intrusive ads to straight-out dangerous credential stealers that watch for what users enter on their mobile browsers. In total, there are at least nine developers who are distributing these fake apps, and they are uploaded onto several app stores and websites, but not on the Play Store, though.
Since “Among Us!” is so popular among children and underage players, it is easier for cybercriminals to convince them that unofficial software sources can be trusted. Parents should be monitoring the activity of their children on the mobile, consult them on how to stay safe from malware infection risks, and help them understand why this is so crucially important. Also, installing a mobile security solution on your kid’s device would be a great idea.
“Among Us!” is so popular that it has found itself at the epicenter of the attention of various kinds of crooks, including malware authors and spammers. Back in October, the game had to manage an out-of-hand situation where spamming bots were urging players to subscribe to a YouTube channel and vote for Trump in the then-upcoming elections. Now, we see adware networks targeting the game because there’s just such a huge userbase playing it, so they have a greater chance to make money through it.