“Mobile advertising is a multi-billion-dollar industry on the rise and a very fertile ground for fraud,” said Guy Krief, Upstream CEO. Ethiopia, Nigeria, Malaysia, and Kuwait were also among the top affected nations. Upstream says it used its security platform, Secure-D, to detect and block almost 130m suspicious mobile transactions initiated by VidMate – with transactions originating from nearly 5m unique mobile devices across 15 countries and worth a cost of up to $170m in unwanted charges.Ĥ3m of the suspicious transactions were flagged as coming from Egypt, while there were 27m from Myanmar, 21m from Brazil, 10m from Qatar, and 8m from South Africa. However, it is not available via Google Play and is only distributed by third-party app stores. VidMate is an app for streaming and downloading videos and songs from services such as YouTube, Dailymotion, and Vimeo. As a result, it means that users can take a hit to their data allowance and be levelled with unwanted charges. VidMate, a popular Chinese Android app, is allegedly triggering ‘suspicious background activity’ which could be affecting more than half a billion users.Īccording to Upstream, a mobile technology company, the app contains hidden software that delivers invisible ads, generates fake clicks and purchases, installs other suspicious apps without consent, and collects personal user information.

Vidmate app for android phone