Delete these hair-raising Android apps before they gain full control of your phone and money

Although Android users have probably grown accustomed of late to hearing about all kinds of threats to their mobile security and data privacy, learning not to panic whenever a new virus is discovered, there are definitely different levels of danger associated with different malware-spreading campaigns. And as scary as it sounds, the latest such campaign identified by Trend Micro arguably reaches the highest level.

But if you’re the kind of adventurous (or, let’s be honest, careless) user who likes to regularly take their chances on generic titles from little-known developers, you might want to pay close attention to the following list.

Here are the latest apps you need to delete and avoid at all costs

Recognize any of those names? Search for them on your phone right away and hit the “uninstall” button. You can thank us later.

Distributed via Google Play (where else?) to an unknown number of Android users, these malicious apps are fortunately no longer in (official) circulation, so they shouldn’t be able to add to their victim count anymore… unless you download them from an alternative source, which you should never, ever, EVER do with any app whatsoever.

These apps could cost you some serious money

While free to download and harmless in appearance, DawDropper-infected apps like the ones listed above can wreak absolute havoc on your phones, violating pretty much every level of privacy and security you can possibly think of.

Contact numbers, text messages, phone calls, usernames, passwords, PIN codes, financial information, you name it, these apps can see, steal, and use it against you to do everything from closely monitoring all your online activity to draining your bank account to gaining total control and locking you out of your own Android device.

That’s definitely a little scarier than your usual adware or even fleeceware campaign, and unfortunately, this “DawDropper” banking trojan is not an entirely new threat… nor do we expect it to completely go away anytime soon.

The best ways to protect yourselves against these types of threats remain doing your own research into each and every new app you’re thinking of installing, vetting their user reviews, (advertised) purposes, the data they have (official) access to, and last but not least, the track record (or lack thereof) of their developers. It can also be helpful to ask yourself whether you really need that many apps on your phone whenever considering a new download.