HiddenAds

Many mobile applications rely on advertisements to generate revenue for their creators, and they often warn their users that they may encounter advertisements while using this particular application. Often, it is possible to remove these advertisements by paying for the ad-free version of the application – again, this is a legitimate monetization scheme that many Android applications use. However, there are certain applications that use very dishonest methods to generate revenue by displaying advertisements to their users – these applications are often referred to as adware, and having them on your mobile device may turn out to be a very annoying issue to deal with.

One of the most prominent mobile adware families is known by the name HiddenAds, and it is being spread by copying the names, icons, and descriptions of popular games and applications. By tricking users into thinking that they are about to download a legitimate application, the fraudsters behind the HiddenAds project may end up infecting thousands of users worldwide. Two of the fake applications that generated a lot of downloads and brought the HiddenAds adware to smartphones worldwide are:

• A fake copy of FaceApp, a legitimate and popular application that can be used to edit selfies.
• A fake copy of Call of Duty, a popular computer game – the fraudsters try to present it as an exclusive game variant for Android.

HiddenAds Hides Its Components and Makes Manual Removal a Very Challenging Task

The HiddenAds adware has been found in over 30,000 different fake applications, but the two listed above are the ones that generated a lot of downloads. The behavior of the fake applications linked to the HiddenAds adware is almost always the same – users who try to open the fake application will be told that the 'Application is unavailable in your country,' and prompted to click 'OK' to uninstall it. However, clicking the 'OK' button does not remove the application and, instead, it simply hides all of its icons from the phone's menus. This way, the user might be left with the impression that the dysfunctional program has been removed. HiddenAds will continue to operate in the background and fulfill its purpose of bombarding the victim's devices with advertisements that are likely to promote affiliate products and services, gambling sites, adult content and suspicious websites.

If your smartphone is being flooded with advertisements that appear out of nowhere, then we advise you to run a reputable mobile anti-virus scanner, since this is the only way to discover and eradicate advanced adware like HiddenAds. In addition to using a reputable anti-malware serviced, mobile users should be extra careful with the applications they download – make sure to check their rating and reviews, as well as to do additional research if something about the application feels out of place.