An extremely popular flashlight app for Android devices is showing malicious ads that try to fool users into installing potentially dangerous applications on their smartphone.
Trend Micro security researchers
report that the app Super-Bright LED Flashlight, available from the official Google Play Store, is pestering users with ads after they install it.
While apps that show ads are nothing new, this app shows ads with a scareware tendency that tell users that their phone is infected, or their battery has a virus.
At this point, some more experienced users will just uninstall the app and replace it with another. Less experienced ones might click the ad, and might be tricked into downloading another app, a so-called virus remover or antivirus.
Security experts call these types of apps PUAs (Potentially Unwanted Applications) because often they harbor malware. In its annual report, the company admitted that
0.15 percent of all Play Store app installs in 2015 contained malicious code.
