More than 35 million downloads, 38 counterfeit Minecraft games found on Google Play Store

According to the latest report released by McAfee’s mobile security team, at least 38 counterfeit “Minecraft” mobile games have been found on the Google Play Store, and the cumulative downloads have exceeded 35 million times.

After McAfee reported the findings to Google, it removed the problematic games. The number of downloads of the main counterfeit apps attached is as follows:

 Block Box Master Diamond – Over 10 million downloads

 Craft Sword Mini Fun – Over 5 million downloads

 Block Box Skyland Sword – 5 million+ downloads

 Craft Monster Crazy Sword – 5 million+ downloads

 Block Pro Forrest Diamond – Over 1 Million Downloads

 Block Game Skyland Forrest – 1 million+ downloads

 Block Rainbow Sword Dragon – 1 million+ downloads

 Craft Rainbow Mini Builder – 1 million+ downloads

 Block Forrest Tree Crazy – 1 million+ downloads

After players launch these copycat “Minecraft” mobile games, the advertisement will be loaded, but the screen content will not be displayed. McAfee reported that initial network packets for several applications had a similar structure, using “3.txt” as a path of the form “https://(random).netlify.app/3.txt”.

While loading ads is a relatively low threat among malicious apps, it can slow down the performance of mobile devices, raise privacy concerns, and may even create security holes that expose users to more serious infections.