{"id":19812,"date":"2019-07-05T12:53:41","date_gmt":"2019-07-05T11:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devopsonline.co.uk\/?p=19812"},"modified":"2019-07-05T14:34:46","modified_gmt":"2019-07-05T13:34:46","slug":"4shared-caught-using-fake-ads-to-steal-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devopsnews.online\/4shared-caught-using-fake-ads-to-steal-money\/","title":{"rendered":"4shared caught using fake ads to steal money"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Popular <a href=\"https:\/\/www.devopsonline.co.uk\/why-cloud-native-is-the-new-normal\/\">cloud storage<\/a> app, 4shared, has been caught using fake ads to take users&#8217; money without consent, according to security researchers.<\/p>\n<p>The file-sharing app, which has 100 million installs on <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Android_(operating_system)\">Android<\/a>, is allegedly displaying secret ads and, unknowingly to users, is subscribing them to paid services. Something which is supposedly adding up to millions of dollars in un-solicited charges.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers for Upstream\u2019s security lab discovered that ads were being used to create fake videos, views, and clicks.<\/p>\n<h4>How it works<\/h4>\n<p>Speaking to TechCrunch, Guy Krief, chief executive of Upstream said: \u201cIt happens in the background\u2026nothing appears on screen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The way that money is being taken is through third-party code which appears on the app and makes automatic clicks that lead to illegal purchases.<\/p>\n<p>It is thought that the money is being sent over to the British Virgin Islands as 4shared is owned by New IT Solutions, who are based there.<\/p>\n<h4>Elephant Data<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.elephantdata.net\/view\/index.html\">Elephant Data<\/a>, a Hong Kong-based company, are the ones who built the components for the app, which automatically generates clicks that lead to the fraudulent subscriptions. Cookies are then used to presumably hide that the action has taken place.<\/p>\n<p>From April, 4shared no longer appeared on Google Play and instead had been replaced by an app that was almost the exact same, just with the previous Elephant Data-built component removed.<\/p>\n<p>4shared have claimed that they will no longer be working with Elephant Data. However, the components created by Elephant Data cannot be removed by 4shared, and Reddit users have commented that if the app is not updated, then data can still be collected.<\/p>\n<h4>Changing names<\/h4>\n<p>Upstream said that despite the taking down of the old app from Google Play, 100 million people were still using the old platform.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers warned users of the app by saying: \u201cInstead of appearing under its own name, it assumes the names of either existing legitimate apps (like com.chrome.beta \u2013 the new beta version of Google\u2019s Chrome browser) or non-existing ones.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They continued: \u201cThe app seems to be using multiple fake names at the same time which it regularly and simultaneously changes.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>Being aware of problems<\/h4>\n<p>Over 114 million mobile transactions were blocked by Upstream that were flagged as suspicious and coming form 4shared. These came from 17 countries and 2 million unique devices. It\u2019s thought that overall, these unwanted transactions would add up to \u00a3118 million in airtime charges.<\/p>\n<p>The investigators said that this type of fraud is a growing trend and that those <a href=\"https:\/\/www.devopsonline.co.uk\/how-to-test-your-mobile-apps-in-the-right-environments\/\">downloading apps<\/a> need to be vigilant when doing so, making sure to check reviews and developer details.<\/p>\n<p>They said: \u201cMobile ad fraud is growing in frequency and sophistication. To avoid falling victim to mobile ad fraud, Android users should immediately check their phones to see if they have any suspicious apps installed. If so, they should uninstall them immediately and review any recent mobile airtime charges for possible fraud.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As well as money, personal data was also being sent off to the British Virgin Islands. This included information such as gender, age, user ID&#8217;s, and device ID&#8217;s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Popular cloud storage app, 4shared, has been caught using fake ads to take users&#8217; money without consent, according to security researchers. The file-sharing app, which has 100 million installs on Android, is allegedly displaying secret ads and, unknowingly to users, is subscribing them to paid services. Something which is supposedly adding up to millions of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":19813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3352,1351,1158],"tags":[357,70,3385,112],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>4shared caught using fake ads to steal money - DevOps Online North America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"File sharing company, 4shared, have been caught stealing from users through fake ads. It is thought the money is being sent to the British Virgin Islands.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/devopsnews.online\/4shared-caught-using-fake-ads-to-steal-money\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"4shared caught using fake ads to steal money - DevOps Online North America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"File sharing company, 4shared, have been caught stealing from users through fake ads. It is thought the money is being sent to the British Virgin Islands.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/devopsnews.online\/4shared-caught-using-fake-ads-to-steal-money\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"DevOps Online North America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-05T11:53:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-07-05T13:34:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/devopsnews.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/iStock-1069758178.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1366\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"grace barnott\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@DevOpsAmerica\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@DevOpsAmerica\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"grace barnott\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devopsnews.online\/4shared-caught-using-fake-ads-to-steal-money\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devopsnews.online\/4shared-caught-using-fake-ads-to-steal-money\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"grace barnott\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devopsnews.online\/#\/schema\/person\/13f07bc13309191f2e656ba88b8aab63\"},\"headline\":\"4shared caught using fake ads to steal money\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-05T11:53:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-05T13:34:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devopsnews.online\/4shared-caught-using-fake-ads-to-steal-money\/\"},\"wordCount\":517,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devopsnews.online\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devopsnews.online\/4shared-caught-using-fake-ads-to-steal-money\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/devopsnews.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/iStock-1069758178.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"apps\",\"Cloud\",\"elephant data\",\"security\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Cloud\",\"Finance\",\"Security\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/devopsnews.online\/4shared-caught-using-fake-ads-to-steal-money\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devopsnews.online\/4shared-caught-using-fake-ads-to-steal-money\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/devopsnews.online\/4shared-caught-using-fake-ads-to-steal-money\/\",\"name\":\"4shared caught using fake ads to steal money - DevOps Online North America\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devopsnews.online\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devopsnews.online\/4shared-caught-using-fake-ads-to-steal-money\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devopsnews.online\/4shared-caught-using-fake-ads-to-steal-money\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/devopsnews.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/iStock-1069758178.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-05T11:53:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-05T13:34:46+00:00\",\"description\":\"File sharing company, 4shared, have been caught stealing from users through fake ads. 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