Cryptocurrency enthusiasts pay believing that they are mining digital coins through android apps. In reality, they are doing nothing and getting nothing.
Over 170 Android apps have joined the crypto craze with their scam services.
According to market researchers, fraudulent apps, 25 of them accessible on Google Play, are luring crypto traders to fake deals. These apps attract users with their cloud-based crypto mining services.
The mobile apps promise to perform the crypto mining activities on behalf of the users. The subscribers need to pay to access the services.
Crypto mining uses computing power to obtain digital coins. The process solves cryptographic and computational puzzles. Miners get minted coins in return.
However, a personal pc cannot handle mining most cryptocurrencies due to the high power needed for the activity. With that, individuals join mining pools to share the workload and the activities involved.
Lookout evaluated every crypto mining app and discovered that all of them performed illegitimate cloud-based mining. With that, miners pay for services that never exist.
Researchers found two classes of scam apps used in these crypto scams. They classified them as CloudScams and BitScams.
CloudScams uses cloud computing power to offer crypto mining options. That makes it easy for developers to build mining services that appear to be legit. BitScams are apps that provide investors with extra ‘virtual hardware’ – costing around $12.00 to $259.99 – it promises magnified returns.
Users can make direct payments to the developer’s digital wallets via ETH, BTC, or Google Play.
Both options utilize identical business models. But it looks like groups are controlling the apps, bringing the competing forces.
According to the research, over 93,000 traders have fall victim to the trick. As a result, users lost over $350,000, paying for fake upgrades and apps, depending on the installation rates and the requested subscription fees.
The fake apps only collect funds charged for virtual crypto mining services. Be careful whenever installing crypto mining software on your devices. Scammers are upgrading their games and night.
Beware of fake cryptocurrency mining apps.
What do you think about the scam activities around the market? What can market players do to lower risks related to fraudsters? Comment tour views below.
