Do you have the CamScanner app on your smartphone? Cancel it immediately!!
The popular application for creating PDFs and for text recognition is full of malware
Proof that even very important download numbers are not conclusive proof of the validity and security of an application comes Kaspersky's complaint about CamScanner , a software downloaded over 100 million times on Android that has literally been full of malware and malicious elements. Do you have it on your smartphone? The advice is to delete it as soon as possible.
While browsing through smartphones blogs I came across a popular website which offers Amazon Coupons and Vouchers. I had used them to grab best deal on my new smartphone.
With a recent post on the official blog, the popular computer security company has put the spotlight on CamScanner, an app that allows you to create pdf files and that offers among the various appreciated features that of text recognition from an image (the technology ocr, optical character recognition).
Names can change from region to region such as CamScanner Phone Pdf Creator to CamScanner Scanner to scan Pdf. Whatever it is, if you find CamScanner in the list on your mobile you will have to proceed immediately to delete.
How to do? You can either locate the icon on one of the pages of the interface, hold down then tap on uninstall. Or from the path Settings> Apps> Camscanner> Uninstall. Afterwards, better to give a nice cleaning pass with an antivirus and antimalware .
What are the dangers identified by Kaspersky, which, moreover, had already been reported by numerous users as noted in the reviews on Google Play Store?
The researchers found a module called Trojan-Dropper.AndroidOs.Necro.n that is usually found on board some pre-installed applications on Chinese smartphones that opened the door to other malicious elements that settled quietly on the device. The result is that continuous and invasive advertisements were received and subscriptions were made to expensive subscriptions apparently without reason and without ever having given consent.
And to say that at first CamScanner was clean and did its job well with honest advertising and some in-app purchases allowed. Over the years, however, it has turned into a mistress who has already claimed many victims.
Once again a malicious and important app becomes the protagonist on Play Store, demonstrating that you can never be 100% sure even when faced with such popular apps. Moderators on the Google portal always try to scrutinize everything, but the impressive number of software and the continuous updates make everything very complex. As always, having security software is highly recommended.