Top app of the Google play store"Virus Shield" is a scam

Virus Shield, an app which claimed it could prevent harmful apps being installed, scan your phone for problems in the background and protect private information – all without taxing the battery life – has been downloaded by thousands of people and given a collective rating of 4.5 stars. It was available at $3.99.

According to the Android Police, the app doesn't actually do anything. Virus Shield has been removed from the store because it was a scam. While it promised to be the best protection against malware, spyware and harmful viruses, along with improving the overall speed of your Android device, it did none of the above.

In a Google+ post, Chris DiBona, Director of Open Source at Google had in 2011 written about his scepticism of anti-virus software. No major cell phone has a 'virus' problem in the traditional sense that windows and some mac machines have seen. There have been some little things, but they haven't gotten very far due to the user sandboxing models and the nature of the underlying kernels. No Linux desktop has a real virus problem. Yes, virus companies are playing on your fears to try to sell you bs protection software for Android, RIM and IOS. They are charlatans and scammers. IF you work for a company selling virus protection for android, rim or IOS you should be ashamed of yourself. If you read a report from a vendor that trys [sic] to sell you something based on protecting android, rim or ios from viruses they are also likely as not to be scammers and charlatans.

Google has now removed the app from the Google Play store. It’s unclear whether they have also refunded any of the 10,000+ users who downloaded the app.

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