Despite the numerous steps taken by Google to clean up its Play Store and remove apps which are malicious in nature, at least 15 apps have been freshly identified as harmful. This has come out through a team in the British cybersecurity firm Sophos. The firm has informed Google and the apps have been removed from the Play Store. However, if you had downloaded any of these by mistake, have them uninstalled from your Android mobile phone immediately.

The 15 apps are: Image Magic, Generate Elves, Savexpense, QR Artifact, Find your Phone, Scavenger Speed, Auto Cut Out Pro, Read QR Code, Flash on Calls & Msg, Photo Background, ImageProcessing, Background Cut Out, Background Cut Out (developed by Haltermore), Auto Cut Out and Auto Cut Out 2019.

The danger from these apps, as detected by the research team, is that they don’t show up so easily. The best way for you is to tap on the Settings icon that is usually in the shape of a gear and go to the Apps & Notifications page. If your phone has a recently used apps section and if you find any of the above 15 apps, immediately Force Stop them, and subsequently Uninstall them. Some of these malicious apps can directly invade your private data. The fear is there may be more such apps lurking in the Play Store.

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