Some dubious soccer gaming apps are flooding the Google Play store less than two weeks before the World Cup is scheduled to begin in Brazil, according to Prague-based antivirus company Avast.
Beware Fake World Cup-Related Soccer Apps
Fake, spammy apps are flooding the Google Play store in honor of the World Cup.
Corner kick World Cup 2014
Avast investigators have been downloading a bunch of soccer-related apps recently and found that several of them either weren’t really games at all or were collecting far more information than they’d realistically need.
The Avast folks singled out an app called Corner Kick World Cup 2014, which is less than 1 MB in size, showed a series of ads and provided no game play. Another suspect: Fifa 2014 Free – World Cup, which installs under a different name, “widereceiverfree,” and asks for information “that has nothing to do with the app’s function, like location, call log, and to other accounts on the phone,” according to an Avast blog post.
Not all soccer gaming apps are problematic, obviously, but it’s worth taking a look at the reviews before downloading. There are also a couple of official apps in the Google Play store which are worth a look.
Soccer’s international governing body FIFA, the Federation Internationale de Football Association, has an official app which will provide scores and news from all matches. Game developer EA Sports also has an official World Cup app, FIFA 14, which allows players to follow along with official matches as well as create a fantasy team.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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