Unlike the Windows Phone Store and iOS App Store, there is no moderation of apps that are published on the Play Store. While this allows eager developers to test out new apps and updates as soon as possible, it also leads to some harmful and malicious apps making their way to the Play Store.
Recently, there has been a rise of “developers” submitting fake and spammy apps on the Play Store. These apps have a name of a popular app or game that is not yet available on Android and are filled with fake screenshots. Once installed, they can install an adware on your device or steal your personal data.
The only solution to this problem is to report the app as spam and then pray that someone at Google notices it and removes it quickly. Generally, if a lot of people report an app as spam it is taken down by the Google Play team pretty quickly.
If you want to keep the Android ecosystem clean from developers with malicious-intentions, below is how you can report an app as spam.
Via an Android Device
It is actually pretty easy to report an app as spam from an Android device. Open the app listing of the fake/spam app and scroll down to the bottom of its listing where you should see the “Flag as inappropriate” option.
Tap on it and then select the reason why you think the app is inappropriate in nature. To report a fake or adware filled app, you will have to select the ‘Other objection’ option and then describe why you think the app is spammy.
Via a Computer
Sadly, there is no direct way to report an app as spam from the web version of Play Store. Instead, you will need to head over to this page on Google support and submit all the details about the app and your reason as to why you think its fake.
The Google Support link above has ‘Spam’ as a category of complaint to make your life a little bit easier.
Keep in mind that you can use the above ways to report apps that are infested with adware/spyware, are a fake copy of some popular app/game, sexual content or their listing is filled with SEO keywords.
With great power comes greater responsibilities, so make sure you this power properly. If you ever come across a fake/spammy app on the Play Store, make sure to report it to the Google Play team and tell your friends to do the same as well so that it is removed quickly.
