Security experts at Sophos have unearthed a bevy of Android apps designed specifically to fleece users when its free trial ends – charging £200 to your credit card, even after you’ve deleted the app.
Amongst the applications discovered by Sophos are a number of common utility apps, including a basic QR code reader, compass, and calculator. It’s important to note that none of these contain any malicious code and using the app itself won’t damage your device.
Instead, crafty app developers have take advantage of the ability to offer free trials for premium subscription apps available in the Google Play Store to get users to pay over the odds for their apps.
While most premium Android apps will charge the same as you’d expect to pay for a large Latte to go, those identified by Sophos billed users up to $240, roughly £200, if they failed to hit Cancel on the free trial they started when they used the app for the first time.
That’s a lot.
To make matters worse, while most well-intentioned Android developers will cancel any outstanding commitments to their app or service when you delete their app from your device – a pretty clear sign that you’re finished with it – these apps would continue to charge. So, Android phone and tablet owners wouldn’t even be able to see the app on their devices when the subscription charges started to come in – making the cancellation process seem even more of a headache.
It’s worth pointing out that this practice doesn’t mean the apps are breaking any rules. In its terms and conditions, Google warns users to cancel any subscriptions or additional payments from premium apps before uninstalling them to avoid being billed at a later date.
Sophos provided Google with a list of 15 apps guilty of using these techniques. To date, Google has removed 14 of these from its Play Store, which should reassure Android users.
However, Sophos says that it has identified even more of these so-called “fleeceware” apps hidden in the Play Store, some of which have already been downloaded by unsuspecting users millions of times.
To avoid falling victim to this type of app in future, you should be wary of any app that asks you to cough-up payment information before beginning a free trial. Especially if the app seems pretty basic – like a QR reader.
It’s worth trawling the fine print within the app to make sure there’s no mention of sky-high subscription fees that could be coming your way in future. Checking reviews in the Play Store can also be a good way of weeding out any scam apps.
Finally, Google does let you cancel subscriptions from the Play Store itself, which should save you through every subscription app installed on your handset to find the cancel button. It will also help if you’ve deleted any of these apps.
To check for any active subscriptions, simply head to Google Play Store app on your Android phone or tablet. Make sure you’re signed in to the correct Google Account, then tap Menu Subscriptions.
There you should find a list of all active subscriptions being billed from your apps. Select the subscription you want to cancel, and tap the “Cancel Subscription” button.