More than 5 million Android phones and tablets are infected with this virus that steals our money

Antivirus company Kaspersky is warning users of Android smartphones and tablets about the virus called Harly. This is a Trojan horse that copies legitimate apps and seeks to sign us up for bogus subscriptions by hijacking our text messages.

As we know, Google’s application store, the Play Store, is unfortunately not infallible and malicious applications and viruses manage to slip through the cracks.

Kaspersky has unmasked a Trojan horse-like virus that has allegedly infected more than 5 million devices since 2020 and continues to rage.

Named Harly, it would infect more than 190 applications.

The Dangers of the Harry Trojan

The virus was named Harly due to its similarities to the Joker virus. Batman fans will understand the name reference.

Still, Harley seeks to copy legitimate applications. Not only does it copy their app names and logos, but also their functionality!

It is for this reason that they have managed to slip into the Google Play Store.

Once installed on our phone or tablet, Harley will then work in the background to sign us up for bogus subscriptions.

All this is done without our knowledge, since to confirm registration for its services, Harley will literally hijack our text messages so that we do not see the confirmation of our subscriptions.

The latter can even go so far as to confirm a registration via a telephone call, again without anyone suspecting it.

Apps to avoid downloading

We do not know the complete list of applications that have been copied and infected by the Harley virus, but we do know which ones have been downloaded the most times.

Google has removed them from its Play Store catalog, but it is important to remove them from our device if we have them installed.

Thus, the 10 most downloaded applications containing the Harley virus are:

• Pony Camera – Over 500,000 downloads
• Live Wallpaper&Themes Launcher – Over 100,000 downloads
• Action Launcher & Wallpapers – Over 100,000 downloads
• Color Call – Over 100,000 downloads
• Good Launcher – Over 100,000 downloads
• Mondy Widgets – Over 100,000 downloads
• Funcalls-Voice Changer – Over 100,000 downloads
• Eva Launcher – Over 100,000 downloads
• Newlook Launcher – Over 100,000 downloads
• Pixel Wallpaper – Over 100,000 downloads

How to protect yourself against the Harley virus

The code of the Harley virus being known to the major antivirus companies, the best way to protect yourself is precisely to equip yourself with a protection solution.

There are also simple tricks to apply in order to avoid downloading Harley or any other malicious software on our Android phone or tablet.

You can find these tips in the link below.

6 tips to avoid downloading infected apps on Android phones or tablets