Secure-D exposes suspicious android app with 500 million downloads

Secure-D, a leading mobile technology company, has unveiled that the popular Android application VidMate triggers suspicious background activity. Hidden software within the app delivers invisible ads, generates fake clicks and purchases, installs other suspicious apps without consent and collects personal users' information. Consequently, it depletes users' data allowance and brings unwanted charges.
With over 500 million downloads reported, VidMate is a popular Android application for streaming and downloading videos and songs from services such as Dailymotion, Vimeo, and YouTube. It is not available in the Google Play Store but is distributed through third-party app stores like CNET or Uptodown. According to publicly available information, VidMate was developed by a subsidiary of UC Web, which is owned by Chinese conglomerate Alibaba.
Most of the suspicious activity, which is still ongoing, was largely centered in 15 countries. 43 million of the suspicious transactions flagged by Secure-D are coming from devices in Egypt, 27 million from Myanmar, 21 million from Brazil, 10 million from Qatar, and 8 million from South Africa. Among the top affected markets are also Ethiopia, Nigeria, Malaysia and Kuwait. These are countries where digital payments via mobile airtime are common and often the only way to make financial transactions, as most people are unbanked.