Want free porn apps? Downloading random Android apps isn’t a smart way to find it

In 2015, it shouldn’t really be quite so necessary to keep pointing out all the ‘good’ practices for keeping yourself and your data safe online.Using different passwords across different websites is a pretty obvious start, but apparently not advice that anyone bothers listening to, judging from the top passwords used across Ashley Madison.

However, just because continually repeating this sort of advice shouldn’t be necessary, clearly it is. People are still downloading malware-riddled apps they know nothing aboutg without a care in the world, until it’s too late.

One of the latest is a ‘ransomware’ app that ships under the rather generic name of ‘Adult Player,’ according to security company Zscaler.

Once installed and granted permission to control your lock screen, ‘Adult Player’ silently takes photos of the user via the device’s front-facing camera. After that, it locks the screen and demands a payment of $500 before it will let you use the device again.

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Rebooting won’t help either, as the message appears at restart.

While I have some sympathy for people who’ve fallen for this trap, a little common sense would probably have protected them.

First off, you need to download the app from outside the Google Play app store, which removes all the safeguards that go along with that. It’s not unheard of for legitimate apps to need to be downloaded in this way – Amazon’s Android app for Prime TV, for example, but you should know better than to start installing random apps that promise you free porn from anywhere on the internet.

Even after downloading, at the point of allowing the app to access your lock screen and act as a device administrator, alarm bells should have been ringing pretty loudly. Why would an app that purports to show you nudey images need permission to wipe all the data on your phone? And why would you ever click ‘OK’ to that?

Given how easy it is to access free porn online without needing to install sketchy apps, it’s surprising that these scams find any victims at all. Clearly they do, though.

If you have fallen victim to this (or other ransomware), you can usually delete the app by booting your handset into safe mode – the method varies according to which device you own. After this, you should then be allowed to delete it. If not, you might have to first remove the offending app’s administrator privileges before you can uninstall it.

Once you’re all fixed, it’d probably be best to stop downloading shady apps from outside Google Play unless you really know where they’re coming from and trust the author.

Featured image credit: Shutterstock