FakeAdsBlock

Adware meant to work on smartphones and tablets can be very annoying if the user has not had to deal with such a problem before, especially. Adware developers often experiment with new tricks and techniques to bombard the user with advertisements, and they also tend to use advanced methods to hide the presence of the devious application and prevent the user from removing it with ease. One of the latest Android adware to be identified by security researchers goes by the name FakeAdsBlock, and it appears to be distributed via fake applications hosted on third-party Android application stores. Ironically, the fake applications are often advertised as reliable ad blockers, but users who install them might have a bad surprise when finding out that they will get just the opposite of an ad blocker.. Closer examination of the FakeAdsBlock revealed that its authors might be planning to diversify their propagation techniques by disguising the bogus 'APK' file as a pirated movie.

FakeAdsBlock Wants Widget and VPN Permissions

Once the FakeAdsBlock adware is run on an Android device, it will prompt the user to give it some strange permissions that ad blockers usually do not request. It asks for:

• Permission to display an overlay on top of ALL running applications This is a weird request because ad blockers are supposed to stop such content from showing, not display more of it.
• Permission to install and configure a new VPN connection Giving unknown applications such permissions could prove to be very unsafe, so you should never accept this! The good news is that the FakeAdsBlock adware does not make use of this permission.
• Last but not least, FakeAdsBlock wants to create a new widget and place it on the home screen – another strange action that legit ad blockers would not request.

If the user does not suspect anything and gives out the requested permissions, then the FakeAdsBlock adware will get to work. The advertisements it displays will appear in every possible location – notification area, newly opened Web browser windows, application menus, on top of other applications, etc. Some users report that the FakeAdsBlock adware also opens new browser windows randomly while they were using their phone, and then referred them to advertising sites. The most innovative ad-delivery technique that this adware uses involves the use of a home screen widget. The widget is invisible, so it will not bother the user at the start, but soon it will be used to display advertisements on the home screen – few Android adware samples have adopted such a technique.

It is Recommended to Deal with FakeAdsBlock via Mobile Security Software

The manual removal of FakeAdsBlock might not be an easy task too if the user has a large number of applications installed, especially – trying to find it in the 'Apps' section of the Android settings menu might not be easy since the developers of the adware have left it with an empty name and no icon. It is recommended to use a reputable mobile anti-malware service to make sure that all of the adware's components will be erased from your device safely.