Stefan Hurzlmeier<\/a>, the developer behind the Android screen-casting app LocalCast, recently noticed something strange about the ads running on his app. All of the ads were for competing casting apps. But the strange part wasn\u2019t just that competitors were advertising on his platform. The developer also found it strange that these ads all had the same ad style, were advertising the same kind of app, and were all targeting LocalCast users specifically.<\/p>\nThis prompted Hurzlmeier to start investigating the 16 apps being advertised on LocalCast. What the developer found during his investigation was interesting to say the least.<\/p>\n
Have you encountered a scam ad on Android?<\/p>\n
1038 votes<\/p>\n
Yes, I encounter them regularly.<\/p>\n
41%<\/p>\n
Yes, but only one or two.<\/p>\n
12%<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve seen them on others\u2019 phones.<\/p>\n
9%<\/p>\n
No, I run a systemwide ad-blocking solution.<\/p>\n
26%<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not entirely sure.<\/p>\n
10%<\/p>\n
It’s complicated (elaborate in the comments).<\/p>\n
2%<\/p>\n
According to the report, these apps are operated by a small number of developer networks, primarily based in Vietnam and Pakistan. In addition to these 16 apps, it\u2019s reported that these networks operate over 280 other apps across dozens of fake developer accounts, which have resulted in a combined 1.8 billion installs. The developer claims that it is \u201csystemic Play Store manipulation\u201d that has led to \u201ccoordinated ad campaigns targeting competing apps like mine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hurzlmeier lists the following five groups as the worst offenders:<\/p>\n
iKame\/Begamob (Vietnam): This group reportedly has over four Play Store accounts, 130-plus apps, and about 1.5 billion installs.
\nMaxLabs (Hong Kong): This company is said to run eight separate Play Store developer accounts (Maxlabs Graphic Design Tools, Maxlabs Photo Editor, Maxlabs Personalization Tools, and so on).
\nPackage ID ai.chatbot.alpha.chatapp: This is allegedly a cast to TV app that was previously an AI chatbot called \u201cAI Chatbot \u2013 Alpha.\u201d It\u2019s said that the app was renamed to inherit the chatbot\u2019s rankings. Hurzlmeier says Google\u2019s cached search result still shows the old name.
\nNice \u2013 Polska Sp. z o.o.: This casting app shows Nice \u2013 Polska Sp. z o.o. as its Play Store developer. However, Hurzlmeier claims that \u201cthe privacy policy is at generationztech.com, the contact is support@generationztech.com, and the company behind it is a UK shell run by a single person in Pakistan.\u201d
\nIncube Technologies (Pakistan\/UAE): This network reportedly sells app store optimization as a service, and its casting apps are published through \u201cSwiftBiz Apps.\u201d<\/p>\n
In regard to the app experience, Hurzlmeier claims that these apps don\u2019t actually work. In addition to not casting, these apps allegedly serve uncloseable ads that require you to restart your phone, \u201cfree trials\u201d that charge immediately, and $25.99 weekly subscriptions.<\/p>\n
Android Authority has reached out to Google for comment. We\u2019ll update this article once new information is available.<\/p>\n
Thank you for being part of our community. Read our\u00a0Comment Policy<\/a> before posting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Edgar Cervantes \/ Android Authority TL;DR A report claims that the cast to TV\/screen mirroring category on Google…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[1711,20302,61,60,202,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-375993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-google","9":"tag-google-play-store","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-mobile","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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