Google Play Safety Tips: Avoid Scams and Bad Apps

How to spot a bad app

Check the developer name, not just the app name. Impersonators copy popular icons and titles, but they cannot copy an established developer's history. Look at the install count, the review dates, and the ratio of five-star to one-star reviews. A brand-new app with a million installs and only glowing reviews is almost always fake.

Read the permissions before you install. A flashlight app that wants access to your contacts and location is not a flashlight app. Google Play Protect will flag many of these, but human judgment catches the rest.

The gift-card scam

If anyone asks you to pay them with a Google Play gift card — a tax bill, a utility bill, a fine, a job application fee, a boss, a relative in trouble — it is a scam. Every time. Government agencies do not accept gift cards. Employers do not send new hires to buy gift cards. Once a code is shared, the money is gone.

If you have already sent codes, contact your card retailer immediately; some are able to freeze the balance if the codes have not been redeemed. Then report the scam to your local consumer-protection authority.

Account hygiene

Turn on two-step verification for your Google account. Use a password manager so each account gets a unique password. Review the devices signed in to your Google account every few months and remove anything you no longer use.

Our Google Account safety guide walks through each of these steps with screenshots.

Kids and shared devices

If children use the device, set up Family Link and require a password for every purchase. Otherwise a tap on a colorful button can turn a free game into a real charge.