India, May 8 -- ESET researchers have identified fraudulent apps on Google Play that falsely claimed to provide call history information "for any number".

The apps, which ESET has named CallPhantom, claimed to offer access to call histories, SMS records and even WhatsApp call logs linked to any phone number. Users were required to pay to unlock these features, but the apps delivered only randomly generated data.

ESET identified 28 such apps, which together had been downloaded more than 7.3 million times.

As a partner in the App Defense Alliance, ESET reported its findings to Google. All 28 apps identified in the investigation have since been removed from Google Play.

The CallPhantom apps primarily targeted Android users in India. Many...