You need to delete yet another 38 Android apps before they load up your phone with malware

What is this issue all about?

Specifically, around 35 million (!!!) Android users worldwide have apparently been served ads in the background of their mobile gaming sessions recently with the main purpose of generating unlawful revenue for various shady companies and individuals.

That sounds like something that won’t greatly impact your user experience or data privacy, but anyone who’s ever accidentally installed this type of malware before knows precisely how annoying it can be to notice your phone slow down, freeze, or crash out of nowhere without being able to identify the culprit.

That’s because every single malicious app found to be part of this specific adware group emulates or, let’s be honest, downright rips off Mojang’s hugely popular Minecraft game. We’re talking incredibly similar titles mixing up the words “block”, “diamond”, “craft”, “sword”, “monster”, “forrest”, “builder”, and “rainbow” in slightly different ways to draw the attention of the most vulnerable mobile users of all.

These are all the apps you need to delete ASAP

If you’re thinking of discarding this threat as minor and unimportant… don’t. That’s because the malicious Android games listed above are ordered by popularity, starting with a title that was downloaded more than 10 million titles and three more with 5 million+ Google Play installs under their belt (each).

More than 10 million Android devices were infected by this one app alone.

So, yeah, if you’re not extremely careful about every single thing you or your kid downloads from the official Play Store every single day, odds are your phone might need a little spring cleaning. And quickly! That’s especially true if you live in the US, Canada, South Korea, or Brazil, which were apparently the main countries targeted by this malware-spreading campaign.