28 Fake Call History Apps on Google Play with 7.3M+ Downloads Trick Users to Steal Payments

Cybersecuritynews •Tushar Subhra Dutta • May 7, 2026

A new wave of fraudulent Android apps quietly racked up millions of downloads on Google Play before being taken down. These apps, now tracked under the name CallPhantom, promised users something irresistible: the ability to look up the call history of any phone number. What they actually delivered was nothing more than fake data and […]

The full story

This article is one source in a clustered incident — the cluster page carries the summary, timeline and every other outlet covering it.

CallPhantom Fraudulent Apps Scam Millions of Android Users A series of fraudulent apps named CallPhantom were discovered on Google Play, promising access to call histories for any phone number. Users were tricked into paying for subscriptions, only to receive fabricated data. ESET identified 28 such apps, which collectively garnered over 7.3 million downloads, primarily targeting users in India and the Asia-Pacific region. The apps generated random call data and displayed it to users after payment. ESET reported these apps to Google, leading to their removal from the Play Store in December 2025. User reviews indicated widespread dissatisfaction, with many victims claiming they were scammed. The apps exploited users' curiosity about private communication data. No malware was found in these apps, indicating a purely fraudulent scheme. 5 sources 53

28 Fake Call History Apps on Google Play with 7.3M+ Downloads Trick Users to Steal Payments

The full story

Extracted Entities

Malware (1)

Platforms (1)