One of the benefits of using the Google Play Store to download apps is that you can trust the apps that are on the marketplace as they have passed security checks. But what if the apps bypassed these checks?

To answer that question we turn to researchers at Bitdefender who have identified 35 malicious applications that have snuck onto the Google Play Store. There have been a total of two million downloads of these 35 apps.

“For the past few years, cyber-criminals have strengthened their efforts to have malicious applications listed on Google Play Store – the world’s most trafficked Android app source. While the platform’s security checks have improved through the years, our research still uncovers malicious apps that use a vast array of tricks to bypass these checks,” write the Bitdefender researchers.

The researchers say there is a new campaign afoot in which apps lure users into downloading them only to change their name and serve them an alarming amount of advertising.

One app for instance, would be downloaded as GPS Locations Maps only for its label to be changed to Settings making it harder to find and less likely to be deleted by the user.

What happens when a user tries to access this fake Settings app? It will open the actual settings of the device and shrink the actual app to zero so it looks like the user opened the settings menu.

“The ‘GPS Locations Maps’ app makes it difficult for users to find and uninstall it by changing its icon. Also, on some devices, a few malicious apps even request permission to bypass the battery optimization feature and start foreground services notifications to stay alive and not get killed by the system,” the researchers wrote.

This incident, Bitdefender says, highlights the need to make use of a mobile security solution. With that having been said, the firm also highlights some things you can do before installing an app.

• “Don’t install apps that you don’t really need
• Remember to delete apps you no longer user
• Be wary of apps with a large number of downloads and few or no reviews
• Be wary of apps that request special permissions, like Drawing over apps or access to Accessibility
• Be wary of apps that request access to permissions that have nothing to do with the advertised functionality
• Always run a security solution in the background that can detect malicious behavior. Just because an app is downloaded from an official store doesn’t mean it’s safe.”