On of the most popular app now a days “Prisma” is entertaining its users with its unique feature of transforming image into painted work of art. The app initially was launched for iOS devices only. After receiving great response by users the app officially launched for android versions on 24th July.

The huge following of Prisma on iOS created hype for android users to get this app on their devices. The cyber criminals took advantage to this and uploaded multiple cloned malicious applications on Google Play Store before the official release.

Most of the fake applications found on Google Play Store didn’t have any photo transformation functionality; instead they displayed pop up ads and fake survey to gather information about users, such as phone number, operator name, country name, language and so on. Some actually had very basic photo editing functionality, but mainly streams pop-up ads and displayed fake alerts regarding phone security and version updates. After that, the embedded Trojan would request and download a Phishing module asking their Google credentials in order to upgrade to Android 6.0.

The ESET researcher’s team has discovered fake Prisma apps of different types that include several dangerous Trojan downloaders. The Google Play security team removed them from the official Android store at ESET’s notice. Prior to that point, Prisma copycats reached over 1.5 million downloads by fans.

There are more chances that a user likely to fall into the trap as cyber criminals does their best to fool and trick users to download their malicious apps with convincing logos and icons. The ESET offers some advice for staying safe when downloading apps: