[End-of-Life Planning Diary] Downloading Mobile Apps: Seniors Need to Be Especially Careful! - Increasingly Sophisticated Tactics

Introduction

On Saturday evening, I received a phone call from my mother-in-law.
"My phone screen is acting strange. It's hard to make calls, so I want you to go to the Docomo shop with me tomorrow."

For seniors, smartphone trouble is a major event that signifies a disconnection from society.
The next morning, my wife and I rushed over to my mother-in-law's place first thing.

Abnormal symptoms appearing on the smartphone

When I picked up my mother-in-law's smartphone, a shocking sight unfolded before me.

• Non-stop full-screen ads: No matter what I did, commercials kept interrupting one after another.

• Inducement to suspicious payment apps: It kept pushing me to download QR payment apps, but they looked fake no matter how you looked at them.

• Uncontrollable loop: Even if you closed an ad, the moment you returned to the home screen, the next ad would appear.

It was truly in a state of being "hijacked," and it was impossible to operate properly.

Solved by consulting Gemini!

Since it was difficult to identify the cause on my own, I tried consulting the AI (Gemini). Then,

"There is a high possibility that an app you downloaded recently is the problem. First, please delete them," was the advice I received.

While being hindered by the onslaught of ads, I struggled for 20 minutes. Once I identified and deleted several suspicious apps that had been installed recently, the screen finally returned to its original, quiet state.

The cunning true nature of malicious apps

The app that my mother-in-law got caught by this time had a very clever trap set up.

• "Mimicry" to bypass screening: Perhaps to pass Google's screening, it outwardly masquerades as a normal "news site."

• Persistent ad display: It fills the entire screen with ads to trick the user into clicking them by mistake.

• Inducement to phishing: It tries to make you download fake payment apps to steal personal information and credit card details.

Why did she end up downloading them?

Why did my mother-in-law end up downloading these? The cause was a 'fake warning message' that appeared on her smartphone screen.

• 'Data storage is insufficient. Please install an app to delete unnecessary data.'

• 'A virus has been detected. Please download security software immediately.'

Believing these messages that stir up anxiety, she seems to have installed multiple apps thinking she was doing the right thing.

Conclusion: Measures to share with the family

I strongly asked my mother-in-law, 'From now on, no matter what appears on the screen, please don't touch it and contact me first.' I asked her.

The tactics of malicious apps are becoming more sophisticated every day. In particular, 'seniors who are not good with smartphones but are trying to manage them diligently' are the primary targets. If you have elderly family members, please share this case study and check their smartphones regularly.

Everyone, please be very careful about suspicious 'warnings'!

Please be sure to read this!