Delete these eight malicious Android apps from your phone right now!

Also read: Got a job offer on LinkedIn? Beware it could be malware instead

Joker malware spotted in eight applications on Google Play Store

According to a new report from Quick Heal, Joker malware has been found in eight Android applications on the Google Play Store, namely, Auxilliary Message, Element Scanner, Fast Magic SMS, Free CamScanner, Go Messages, Super Message, Super SMS, and Travel Wallpapers. The cybersecurity company informed about these applications to Google and the Alphabet-owned company quickly removed these applications from the Google Play Store. However, these applications were downloaded thousands of times before being removed from the app distribution platform.

An application with the Joker malware asks you for permissions to read notifications, make and manage phone calls, and access your contacts. Using these three permissions, the app reads your notifications, calls details, SMS, and contacts. While the app does now behaves normally, it downloads two payloads in the background. These payloads basically contain the Joker malware. Once downloaded, the Joker malware interacts with advertisement websites and subscribes the users to premium and chargeable services without notifying the user.

According to the research firm, Malware authors spread these malware applications on the Google Play Store in scanner applications, wallpaper applications, message applications, etcetera. If you have any of the applications that we mentioned above, on your device, you should quickly uninstall them. Also, make sure that you don't download applications from the Google Play Store that aren't popular because the chances of such apps having malware are high.