Android Emoji Keyboard app will make an automatic unauthorized purchases

Recently, researchers from Upstream Systems have reported that an Android app called AI.type will be purchased automatically without authorization. It is understood that AI.type is an Android version of the custom keyboard application, developed by an Israeli company, with downloaded more than 40 million times.

In July 2019, the researchers noticed the abnormal purchase behavior of the app. After technical analysis, the researchers found that the app had automatically issued more than 14 million suspicious purchase requests. These requests came from 110,000 devices in 13 countries, which caused the owner to lose up to $18 million. Experts point out that the app will automatically run in the background, connecting devices to ad services for fake purchases.

At the same time, the researchers noticed that although Google has removed it from the Google Play store, the malicious purchase of the app has not stopped, and even began to make malicious purchase requests more frequently. Therefore, experts recommend that the owner who has downloaded the app delete it as soon as possible.