SophosLabs says you should avoid these two Android apps

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Bad apps are just part of the mobile landscape and they’re not just limited to Android either. SophosLabs is raising the flag on two particular Android apps they say you should probably avoid. SophosLabs claims that Full Optimizer and Full Optimizer Lite are bogus apps that do nothing more than serve ads. Both apps clearly state they contain ads but they also claim to “fully optimize” your Android smartphone.

The most convenient cleaning optimization software as soon as possible. A completely free mobile cleaning tools; One-click optimization system for your phone 360 degrees to clean up the system of garbage, shut down redundant processes, improve the running speed, let your phone more smooth, more save electricity, be your mobile phone clean housekeeper

SophosLabs says these claims are false and that the apps actually don’t do anything but generate random numbers.

SophosLabs researcher Chen Yu said Google Play has been notified about these apps, which Sophos detects as Andr/FakeApp-BH for com.fast.fulloptimizer and com.mas.fast.fulloptimizerlite. Yu said: “They are from the same developer and have the same behavior. Com.fast.fulloptimizer is quite popular, with between 100,000 and 500,000 downloads so far.”

Both apps claim to supply two distinct functions, Phone Boost and CPU Cooler, which Chen says are fake. The research shows that Phone Boost does a loop 72 times and then adds up a random number between 1-5 on each loop.

SophosLabs
After this, the user gets a message claiming they have between 72MB and 360MB free:

The same method is used for the CPU Cooling feature.

SophosLabs

The one thing researchers found the apps did do well was in serving ads. Ads are served consistently and each time a user moves throughout the app. Of course, Sophos offers up ways to protect yourself, not installing these apps is one of them, but they also offer their own mobile security app as a method. Take that for what it’s worth. I would just stick with the first method and avoid apps that claim they will optimize your phone.

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[button link=”https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2017/05/03/want-get-your-android-phone-purring-dont-install-full-optimizer/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Sophos[/button]
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