Security experts at cybersecurity company Bitdefender have detected 331 dangerous apps on the Google Play Store. These apps were doing ad fraud and phishing. This fraud has been named "Vapor Operation". Google has said that it has removed all these apps from the Play Store. But, Bitdefender's report says that 15 apps were still present till the research was completed. Let us tell you that the vapor operation has been going on since the beginning of 2024. Initially, it included 180 apps that sent 200 million fake ad requests daily.

Secretly steal personal information.

According to Bitdefender's new report, there are 331 apps in this operation, such as health trackers, QR scanners, note-taking apps and battery-saving apps. These apps looked like simple tools but secretly showed annoying ads to users, stole their personal information, and even obtained credit card information. The purpose of these apps was to loot money from advertisers through fake clicks.

Here is the list of dangerous apps

Names of some dangerous apps are:

AquaTracker
ClickSave Downloader
Scan Hawk
TranslateScan
BeatWatch

These apps were uploaded to Google Play between October 2024 and March 2025 and mostly targeted users from Brazil, the US, Mexico, Turkey, and South Korea.

How did the attack go undetected?

These apps escaped Google's security checks because when they were submitted, they worked like advertising apps. Later, dangerous code was inserted into them through updates. After being installed, these apps hid their icons and changed their names in the settings to look like trusted apps like Google Voice. These apps would start without the user's knowledge and show ads on the full screen, disable the back button, and even hide from the "Recent Apps" menu. Some apps are also used to do phishing, that is, they show fake login pages on Facebook, YouTube, and payment websites.

Follow these tips to stay safe.

To stay safe from apps, download only apps from well-known developers and carefully look at the permissions the app asks for. Compare your app drawer with Settings> Apps> See All Apps to detect hidden malware. Turn on security tools like Google Play Protect, which checks your apps and devices. Keep updating your Android operating system and apps to remove security vulnerabilities.

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