Fleeceware Apps Extract Over $400 Million on the App Store and Google Play

by Samuel White

Cybersecurity company Avast found out more than 200 fraudulent fleeceware apps with hidden subscriptions or excessive subscription fees on the App Store and Google Play.

Fleeceware applications always offer a free trial period, but if the user is not attentive enough, these apps later begin to withdraw money even after deletion. Sometimes these amounts go up to $3,000 per year.

Even though the developers of fleeceware do nothing bad in terms of law, in some cases, the owners of a mobile device simply do not know how to unsubscribe from recurring payments.

SensorTower estimated that such apps had been downloaded more than 1 billion times and have generated over $400 million in revenue. The OS versions of the software have been downloaded 500 million times in total, bringing developers $365 million. With the same number of downloads on Google Play, the amount earned by developers was $38,500.

The Avast research points to the following categories of apps as being most prone to fleeceware:

  • Musical instrument apps
  • Palm readers
  • Image editors
  • Camera filters
  • Fortune tellers
  • QR code and PDF readers
  • Slime simulators

Avast also gives some tips on how to avoid fleeceware scams:

  • Be careful with free trials of less than a week;
  • Read the fine print;
  • Be skeptical of viral advertisements;
  • Shop around;
  • Secure your payments;
  • Discuss the dangers of fleeceware with your family.