Your Android Phone May Have Dangerous 'Joker' Malware, If It Has Any Of These 24 Apps

We recently saw the release of the Joaquin Phoenix-starrer 'Joker', which has been bagging awards and received a standing ovation at the Venice film festival.

Now it seems there's a malware with the same moniker causing just as much havoc as its namesake.

According to Cybersecurity researcher Aleksejs Kuprins, a number of malicious apps have snuck their way onto the Google Play Store. And you need to watch out because they're sporting malware that can steal your cash.

Dubbed 'Joker', the malware is designed to sneakily sign users up for subscription services. These are usually ones they will be charged for over several months before they even realize what's going on.

According to a Medium post in which Kuprins explains his findings, the malware seems to be targeting specific countries, including Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Kuwait, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and many more.

Kuprins says he found 24 apps on the Play Store infected with the malware. These would specifically target users in European and Asian countries, and require them to be using a SIM card from those regions. Most of these apps seem to have begun their stealth campaigns in June 2019, though some might have been around earlier.

In all, Kuprins says the apps have been installed roughly 472,000 times.

Google does however seem to be aware of the issue, he adds. The company has since removed all of these apps from the Play Store, without needing to be contacted by security researchers. But if you've still got any of these apps on your phone, you're still vulnerable, so we're going to list them out here.

1) Advocate Wallpaper, 2) Age Face, 3) Altar Message, 4) Antivirus Security, 5) Beach Camera, 6) Board picture editing, 7) Certain Wallpaper, 8) Climate SMS, 9) Collate Face Scanner, 10) Cute Camera, 11) Dazzle Wallpaper, 12) Declare Message, 13) Display Camera...

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14) Humour Camera, 15) Ignite Clean, 16) Leaf Face Scanner, 17) Mini Camera, 18) Print Plant scan, 19) Rapid Face Scanner, 20) Reward Clean, 21) Ruddy SMS, 22) Soby Camera, 23) Spark Wallpaper, 24) Security Scan.

If you have these apps, please uninstall and delete them from your Android smartphones, and try to stay safe and secure when you connect online from your phone.