Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) or IP address, and transferred them to Such as International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI), International Investigation- 1 VidMate collected personal user information, In markets suchĪs Brazil, this represents nearly half a month’s work paid at minimumįinally, the Secure-D investigation found that -at the time of the Up to users paying $100 a year in mobile data charges. The Secure-D lab tests also revealed that VidMate consumes battery lifeĪnd bandwidth, eating up more than 3GB of data per month. Transactions, as most people are unbanked. Via mobile airtime are common and often the only way to make financial These are countries where digital payments Among the top affected markets are also Ethiopia, Myanmar, 21 million from Brazil, 10 million from Qatar, and 8 millionįrom South Africa. 43 million of the suspicious transactionsįlagged by Secure-D are coming from devices in Egypt, 27 million from Most of the suspicious activity, which is still ongoing, was largelyĬentered in 15 countries. Ongoing technological innovation is key”. The growing sophistication of disguised malware calls forĪn ever more vigilant approach.

Million suspicious transaction attempts over a few months, is cause for The VidMate example, whereby a single app is responsible for 130 Multi-billion dollar industry on the rise and a very fertile ground forįraud. Guy Krief, CEO of Upstream, commented: “Mobile advertising is a Would have subscribed users to premium digital services potentiallyĬosting them up to $170m in unwanted charges. Million unique mobile devices across 15 countries. These transactions originated from close to 5 Over a recent period Upstream’s security platform, Secure-D,ĭetected and blocked nearly 130 million suspicious mobile transactions Was developed by a subsidiary of UC Web, which is owned by Chinese According to publicly available information, VidMate Google Play Store but is distributed through third-party app stores likeĬNET or Uptodown.

With over 500 million downloads reported, VidMate is a popular AndroidĪpplication for streaming and downloading videos and songs from services Consequently, it depletes users’ĭata allowance and brings unwanted charges. Hidden software within the app delivers invisible ads, generates fakeĬlicks and purchases, installs other suspicious apps without consent andĬollects personal users’ information. A leading mobile technology company, has unveiled that the popularĪndroid application VidMate triggers suspicious background activity.

Vidmate app is malware