Monday, November 19, 2012

Free GTA 3 is just adware


In the Google Play Store a very misleading app is just aggressive advertising. Let's first check out the description straight out of the store:

EDIT: It looks like this was removed from the Google Play Store after complaints. This still can be side-loaded from alternate markets like 1mobile that don't police.

Description
The ultimate Grand Theft Auto fan app! If you love GTA 3 like we do, then this app is for you. We love this game and so do millions of others around the world, and we created an app for all of you fans out there like us who are addicted to the game. Please note this is not the actual Grand Theft Auto game.
- Grand Theft Auto Walkthrough
- Grand Theft Auto User Tips and Reviews
- Grand Theft Auto Images
- Grand Theft Auto Videos
and more!
It's apparent from the description that this is not the actual game but just a free walkthrough: "Please note that this is not the actual Grand Theft Auto game". But the misleading part is that this is not even a proper walkthrough. After running this game all you get is this loaded webpage at appsmenow.com. That's just a big advertisement to purchase a valid copy of GTA 3 with a walkthrough tab that has a pretty pathetic excuse for a walkthrough on it.  
So it's just a little advertising from an affiliate trying to make a sale of a web based advertisement, everything is good right? Wrong; within minutes of installing your getting those dreaded ads pushed your notification bar from our friends over at Airpush, not to mention all the data about you they just collect from your phone. Check here and here for more information about Airpush and reated samples. 
If you look at the Virus Total results for the sample I collected, you can clearly see that this is just a junk app.  Remember to always stay safe when downloading apps from the Google Play Store by first checking out the permissions and second taking a quick look at what others have said about the app, like the comments below for this one. Also, it doesn't hurt to download a free virus scanner, check here for some good free ones.
"Please don't download this game when I opened all was blank and suddenly a app came and told pay 2.99$; for this app"
"Costs money"
"It just an advertisement for u to buy the games false advertising bad:("
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