85 fake applications that accounted for 9 million downloads in Google Play Store were displaying ads. The alertness of Android based smartphone users has been dormant due to the fact that those apps received a lot of positive ratings.

According to Trend Micro, applications identified as AndroidOS_HidenAd adware were posing for game apps, TV or remote control apps and so forth. One of the most popular applications was Easy Universal TV Remote, which accounted for 5 million installations and unaware users gave it positive ratings.

What were the effects of installing one of the above mentioned apps? They displayed adware every 15-30 minutes as well as a false login screens for some of the apps, which could be exploited by scammers.

Apps have been already removed from the Google Play Store and Google has limited the access to certain permissions, such as access to call history or text messages, for the developers of those applications.