New Delhi, Aug. 31 -- Malicious Android applications masquerading as pornography apps are increasingly being used by cybercriminals to take control of users' mobile phones and carry out unauthorised financial transactions, the Union home ministry's Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) warned.

The National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit (NCTAU), under I4C, said it observed a rise in financial frauds involving such applications, which are primarily promoted through advertisements on social media platforms. An advisory issued on August 26 identified apps operating under names such as "Night Play", "Reloop", "Kyss", "Vimo", "Rivo", "Nexo" and "Vixa", besides similar variants.

According to the advisory, users are first lured by adv...