The majority of Android OS users use the Play Store to download apps, games etc. but there is a new type of Play Store subscription that everyone should be wary of. This subscription uses Google’s own prompts and harmless games to steal money. How you may ask? Well, this scam works by deceiving users into accepting a weekly subscription fee which isn’t as innocent as it seems.
The main case of the scam
One main case was in a game called ‘Pingu Cleans Up.’ When the game starts, you create a penguin avatar, then you’re asked to confirm the design with a Google Play pop-up. This happens a second, then third time where the scam starts. The last pop-up will show the show the subscribe button if you’ve already registered your credit card details. If not, it will ask you to enter your details, and if you press accept, you have officially got yourself scammed.
The people that have made the scam were possibly hoping to create prey of people that don’t check what they’re actually signing up for and just press the accept button repeatedly. It was directed at the younger audience as they just want to play the game and will click anything in order to do so.
The many red flags on the game have alerted numerous people leading to bad reviews and it’s consequent removal from the Play Store, but not without thousands falling into the scam’s evil trap. If you’ve fallen into the trap yourself, you don’t have to worry anymore as Google has already put a stop to all subscription charges for this particular scam.
A piece of advice to definitely remember to avoid scams is to make all potential purchases require your password to be entered, hence your rug rats won’t be able to sign you up for everything. If you’re a developer of an app, game or watch face, make sure you contact us at [email protected] so we can promote it here.
