Google has delisted eight allegedly fraudulent mobile apps from its Play Shop that were duping crypto enthusiasts by charging fees for an illegitimate deject mining service.

Fraudulent mobile applications have at present become a popular method to mislead unwary users with loftier success rates. Tendency Micro'south latest inquiry discovered 8 Android applications that were exploiting crypto users by charging a monthly fee under the false pretext of running a legitimate cloud mining service.

Farther assay into the matter uncovered that the malicious apps hosted by Google — posing as crypto mining applications — were deceiving users into watching paid ads and paying for a cloud mining service that does not exist.

According to the study, users were not only being charged a monthly fee of approximately $fifteen but were also subject to more payments for enabling "increased mining capabilities." In add-on, some of the apps required an upfront payment from the user.

The reportedly fraudulent crypto apps included mining services, such as BitFunds, Bitcoin Miner, Daily Bitcoin Rewards, Crypto Holic, MineBit Pro, Bitcoin 2022, and Ethereum — Pool Mining Cloud. The list also includes a crypto wallet service named Bitcoin — Pool Mining Cloud Wallet.

While the above findings were reported to Google Play and have been reportedly removed from the Play Store, Trend Micro claims to have spotted numerous other fraudulent apps that take been downloaded over 100,000 times. The company's data suggests that over 120 fake apps still exist in the Play Store:

"These apps, which practice non have cryptocurrency mining capabilities and deceive users into watching in-app ads, have affected more four,500 users globally from July 2022 to July 2022."

Related: Google running crypto ads again equally new policy goes into event

On Aug. 3, Google revised its advertizement policy, which allows crypto exchanges and wallet services to market their products to Google users. As a part of this drive, advertisers need to be registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as a "coin services business and with at least one state as a money transmitter, or a federal or state-chartered bank entity."

Yet, the established policy prevents initial money offerings, businesses and celebrities from shilling cryptocurrencies. On the other end of the spectrum, social media giant TikTok has resorted to completely banning crypto ads on its platform, a motility similar to Google's previous policy dorsum in 2022.