WARNING! YOUR SOLITAIRE AND FLASHLIGHT CAN STEAL YOUR MONEY

Bankbots are now playing hide and seek in your phone apps. Bankbots are effecting Citi, Chase, DiBa, and WellsFargo users in countries like the US, Australia, Germany, Netherlands, France, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Greece, Russia, Dominican Republic, Singapore, and the Philippines. These apps have been removed from the Play Store but older versions of the app were still active until recently, which allowed bankbots to retrieve banking information from people.

The bankbots remained under the radar as Google's security system in the Play Store was not able to detect them and hackers were able to integrate them into apps like "Classic Solitaire" and "XDC Cleaner", which activate the virus as soon as the app is downloaded.

The malware is able to use a fake user interface on your banking app which allows them to obtain your user ID and password when you type them in the app. Scary!

But unfortunately, as technology improves, so do methods of hacking into accounts. Here are some tips that lessen the likelihood of this happening to you:

1. Make sure that you download a verified banking app. You can even phone the banks' customer service line to make sure that it is the correct app.
   
   
2. Only use authentic app stores and limit your downloads from other sources and, when you do download an app, scroll down and do a bit of research based on user comments about their experiences.
   
   
3. Permissions on app requests are normally the terms and conditions of apps which most people normally skip past. These are extremely important to read in terms of your information security. If the app seems to request abnormal access (like a photo editing app requesting access to your contacts), be careful.
   
   
4. Malware sometimes asks to be granted as the administrator on your device which allows control over your device. If the app does request to become the administrator, do some research to make sure that this is necessary to make the app function.

There are many other apps that have had a history of hacking into peoples phones to retrieve information which may have been shut down but have now released a newer version so always do your research before you download anything.