Apple and Google have always maintained strict policies when it comes to the publication of gambling apps on the App Store and Google Play. However, with the growth of the mobile gambling sector, the two tech giants have been rolling out tougher rules and restrictions in relation to the addition of real-money gaming and betting products to their app stores.
Trend Micro reported Thursday that Apple and Google have wiped hundreds of fake apps after a couple of its mobile threat analysts found that said apps featured descriptions that were “inconsistent with their content” and that they could easily transform into real-money gambling apps.
Most, if not all, of the apps were targeting customers from Asia, more specifically Chinese nationals. Digital gambling, just as many other forms of gambling, are strictly prohibited in Mainland China.
The apps discovered by Trend Micro could have not passed the App Store and Google Play’s review, if they were not masked as apps that featured a completely different type of content.
How Have the Apps Bypassed the Google and Apple App Stores’ Review Processes?
Gambling apps are not entirely prohibited from being uploaded in the App Store and Google Play. However, both app stores do not allow the publication of real-money gaming and betting apps in territories where digital gambling is banned or where a given gambling company is not authorized to operate.
None of the fake apps met Apple and Google’s guidelines for the publication of gambling apps, Trend Micro’s analysts found. They further explained that to successfully pass the two app store’s review processes, each of the chameleon apps started as a normal app that had various features and functionalities, such as weather tracking and entertainment offerings.
The App Store description of one such fake app said that it featured wine-related content. However, upon downloading and opening the app, it could be seen that its actual content was fundamentally different from what its description said.
According to Trend Micro’s analysts the fake apps had a so-called ‘switch’ feature that enabled a threat actor to set an app to show or hide it actual content. During an app’s review process in the App Store or Google Play, its actual content was switched off so it could successfully pass the process.
Once the app was successfully uploaded on the app stores, the threat actors switched on its gambling aspect so that users could see its actual content after downloading it.
Fake Apps Outranked Genuine Ones
Trend Micro’s experts found that in some cases the chameleon apps outranked ones they tried to imitated. For example, a keyword search on the App Store showed two apps in the same category where the fake one ranked higher than the genuine one. Both apps’ descriptions said that they featured wine-related content. However, the higher ranking one was actually a well masqueraded gambling app.
Curiously, Trend Micro found that many of the fake apps made it into Apple’s App Store Top 100 list and boasted more than 100,000 ratings. The case was not the same on Google Play, where the fraudulent apps were only published this past August.
According to Trend Micro’s analysts, the threat actors might have deployed various SEO techniques to make the fake apps more relevant to search engines. The analysts also emphasized that they have so far been unable to find evidence that the apps contained malware that could harm users’ devices.
As mentioned earlier, both Apple and Google have removed the fake apps after being notified about their existence by Trend Micro.
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