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BEWARE OF FRADULANT APPS

Almost all of the mobile operating systems including Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Windows Phone have their own app stores and they encourage their users to download apps and games from the official source. Android is popular for its “open” ecosystem and it does allow users to download and install apps from unofficial sources like Amazon App Store. Obviously unofficial sources are considered less safe than the official sources but when it comes to Android, everything is imaginable. Recently an app reached 1 million downloads in Google Play Store and what this app does is simply amazing; it does nothing.

“Battery Life Repair” launched few months ago and this app got average rating of 4.5 from thousands of people all over the globe. As the name suggests, this app was supposed to “repair” the battery; it shows beautiful visual effects, animations and sound effects to look like a legit app but it does nothing at all. As it is clear, no app (or any software) can repair hardware like battery but millions of people download and install this app on their Android devices.

Though “Battery Life Repair” was a free app but it also had a paid version; amazingly people actually paid $3 for this fraudulent app that was suppose to increase the battery life. This is not the first time a fraudulent app got so much popularity, number of downloads and such high rating on Google Play Store.

Few months ago, an app named “Virus Shield” was published on Google Play Store with a $4 price tag. That app managed to get 4.7 rating from thousands of people all over the world and surprisingly that app was nothing but few animations and graphics. Obviously Google has to do something to improve its policies but meanwhile it is users’ responsibility to download and install apps from reputed publishers.