Check your devices for these 'fleeceware' apps

[MoodyBlues]

More than 600 million users have installed 'fleeceware' apps from the Play Store, and this ZDNet article lists the 25 offending apps.

If you're unaware of the term fleeceware, "It refers to apps that abuse the ability for Android apps to run trial periods before a payment is charged to the user's account."

Last fall, an earlier set of fleeceware apps was exposed; although those should be gone from Play, you still might want to verify that none is still installed on your devices.

Honestly...what will scammers think of next?!

 

[The_Chief]

One would think that if they saw an app charge for $100, especially for $240, that would get their attention! If I saw that on my statement I'd be screaming bloody murder... first action is to the card company to dispute and reverse the charge, second is to contact Google and throw a fit, third is to email the developer (after leaving a blistering review) and tell them that I will not stop fighting until they are perma-banned from ever posting any app again, in any store.

 

[MoodyBlues]

One would think that if they saw an app charge for $100, especially for $240, that would get their attention! If I saw that on my statement I'd be screaming bloody murder...

You and me both.

I think they gamble on the idea that some/many/most people don't carefully check their statements. Even if they use the 3% rule [which applies to the unrelated advertising business], just think about the returns! 3% of $X millions is a lot.

I have every single credit and debit card set to alert me when -any- charge occurs. If I don't immediately recognize it, I log in to see its details. Even a $1 charge--the kind that's used to verify an account being good--has to meet my approval, or else!

 

[The_Chief]

Kudos to you! I use Samsung Pay, so I buy EVERYTHING with the one card. All those notifications would drive me nuts!

We have one credit card and buy everything with it, all month long. We earn 1.5% cash back on every purchase (plus whatever incentives Samsung Pay offers), and we pay off the balance in full every month. I carefully look at the monthly statement, making sure I recognize everything. Since we pay it off every month, we've never carried a balance... so in the years we've had the card, we haven't paid a penny in interest. Visa pays us to use the card. Sweet revenge! They hate us...

 

[MoodyBlues]

Good for you, @The_Chief!

I have many credit cards--even multiple cards from the same company, e.g., American Express and CapitalOne--and use them differently depending on various factors.

Some, like one of my Cap1 cards and my Amazon Prime card, pay 5% cash back; I use them as old-school charge cards, paying them off monthly. Like you, they pay me for using them.

Other cards I use for major purchases, like appliances, when they're offering 0% interest for X months. That's how I bought my new washing machine a year ago--0% interest for 18 months. I did the math, and easily made monthly payments that would have it paid off well before interest kicked in.

I never have cards with membership/annual fees.

Also, I live by a rule that I implemented after life's hard knocks taught me a lesson: never charge anything, including new cars, I don't have money in the bank to pay off immediately, if need be. That served me very well when I abruptly, unexpectedly, and permanently lost my income [due to illness].