Is your Android smartphone battery dying out quickly?

[Bob]

If one has found that one's Android operating system smartphone's batter appears to be getting drained more frequently, or that one's data use has gone UP without actually downloading anything more, quite possibly one has been experiencing a MALWARE app that one got from the official Google Store...

22 apps have been identified which are using a type of autoclick-bait built-in-software which fraudulently makes it seem that the smartphone owner is clicking on ads within an application.

These apps besides just clicking on ads that one "never clicked on", and draining one's battery due to the frequent use of the smartphone contacting its data servers ... the apps are getting payloads from the "designated ad code server" to show a whole host of additional ads one's never clicked on, thereby the APP code developer gets paid from the clients having "viewed" the ad (you've seen ad-banners in "free app software", each time that ad is clicked on a bit of money gets into an account for the developer hosting that 'ad')...

These aps are even running when you shut them down.. It's malware and deceptive according to Sophos who found this package of malwares.

The full article HERE - https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2018/12/06/android-clickfraud-fake-iphone/

These are the apps which one may have put on their Android smartphone:


Sparkle FlashLight
Snake Attack
Math Solver
ShapeSorter
Tak A Trip
Magnifeye
Join Up
Zombie Killer
Space Rocket
Neon Pong
Just Flashlight
Table Soccer
Cliff Diver
Box Stack
Jelly Slice
AK Blackjack
Color Tiles
Animal Match
Roulette Mania
HexaFall
HexaBlocks
PairZap


At least 3 of the companies producing the above also have similar apps for the iPhone. Sophos says those companies don't appear to be using the malware code on those smartphones.

[Spellbound]

Aside from the malware connection, the Samsung S9 had initial complaints about the battery dying out quickly when it was released last February, but that was supposed to have been addressed with an August update.

Dave - Toronto

[Tyy1907]

What better way to keep us upgrading regularly?

[prc]

I had an Iphone 4S that I used for four years. Then I upgraded to an Iphone 6S that is my current mobile phone. But Apple forced several upgrades of the IOS operating system and instead of slowing down the IPHONE now my battery goes flat at 14:30h everyday living myself without mobile phone for the rest of the day. So I thought of changing my next mobile phone to a Sansung but I read an article not long ago that Apple and Sansung were being acused of slowing down their mobile phones deilerately to force users to upgrade to the newest model. The price of a mobile phone in poor coutries is in dollars and can represent the salary of a whole month or several months depending on the salary range.