New Delhi, Aug. 31 -- The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued an advisory warning Android users about malicious applications that can gain control of their devices and potentially steal personal information and money. The National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit (NCTAU) under the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) has observed a rise in financial fraud involving such applications. These apps are primarily promoted through advertisements on social media platforms.
An advisory issued on August 26 identified several applications, including "Night Play", "Reloop", "Kyss", "Vimo", "Rivo", "Nexo" and "Vixa", along with similar variants. These apps can misuse Android's accessibility permissions to gain extensive control over a device. Once installed and granted the required permissions, they can potentially monitor activity on the phone, access sensitive information and carry out unauthorised transactions. The advisory cautioned users against installing applications from unknown or unverified sources, particularly apps promoted through suspicious advertisements, messages or links. Users were advised to download applications only from trusted sources and carefully review the permissions requested by an app before granting access.
The cybercrime unit also urged users to remain alert to apps that ask for accessibility access or other sensitive permissions without a clear reason for requiring them. Users who suspect that they have fallen victim to such a cyber fraud can report the incident through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal or by calling the cybercrime helpline number 1930.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.