Even when you know better, it's easy to get carried away by the idea of hassle-free cash delivered instantly to your smartphone. In fact, the lure is so strong that scammers are now using the idea as a lure in their campaigns for new predatory loan apps.

According to a new blog post from McAfee, researchers at the cybersecurity firm have identified 15 apps with a total of 8 million installations that are stealing personal and financial data from victims. The apps in question have been found in the Google Play Store and other official app stores and are particularly dangerous because they are distributed through official channels on a global level.

These malicious apps use names, logos, and designs very similar to official financial apps in order to entice unsuspecting users to download them. They are also promoted through fake advertisements on social media sites.

Here is everything you need to know about these 15 new SpyLoan apps and how to avoid becoming a victim of these and similar online scams.

If you look at the list of predatory loan apps below, you will see that most of them are used to target Android users in South America, South Asia, and Africa. Still, scammers can easily create similar malicious apps targeting U.S. users and find a way to get them listed in official app stores. If you have any of these apps installed, we strongly recommend that you manually remove them from your phone.While Google Play Protect and the best Android antivirus apps can detect malicious apps that spread malware, apps like these can be more difficult to detect because malicious activity is usually handled outside of the app itself.

Below is a full list of the 15 most recently discovered SpyLoan apps and the number of downloads for each:

SpyLoan apps like the ones listed above take advantage of the promise of fast, flexible financing (often with low interest rates and minimal requirements) to trick unsuspecting They trick unsuspecting users into downloading and filling out personal and financial information. Instead, they are designed primarily to collect as much personal information as possible from potential victims. Instead, the scammers behind the app use this information to harass and coerce users into paying incredibly high and predatory interest rates on the little money they receive.

The predatory loan apps I have covered in the past often gave their victims all, rather than some, of the money they were approved for. They then had a very short time to pay off the loan in full before being constantly threatened with harassing messages and phone calls.

In their blog post, McAfee researchers noted that most SpyLoan apps have the same or similar onboarding process, where victims are presented with a list of nearly identical privacy terms, and must agree to them before they can proceed. These terms explain and justify why the app must collect so much sensitive data. However, no bank would ever require this much data or this kind of sensitive permissions on a top-of-the-line Android phone.

It is worth noting that many of these 15 spy-loan apps share the same command-and-control (C2) infrastructure for data leakage. Therefore, it is highly likely that the same developers or cybercriminal groups are behind all of them.

In addition to hidden fees and high interest rates, installing one of these spy loan apps could result in unauthorized charges to your financial account. Similarly, your personal information could be sold to third parties or even used for extortion purposes if you do not repay the loan as quickly as the scammers would like McAFee concludes its blog post with some of what victims have experienced. From threatening phone calls and death threats to sending harassing messages to friends and family, the scammers behind these predatory loan apps go to extreme measures.

If the app or what it offers looks too good to be true, avoid downloading it. But if you're curious, there are a few deadly signs that an app might be malicious.

For starters, you want to check the app's ratings and reviews. Many of these SpyLoan apps have lots of one-star reviews and ratings that warn you to avoid them at all costs. Since app ratings and reviews can be faked, it is always a good idea to look elsewhere. Video reviews are great because they show how the app in question works, but written ones can also provide a lot of useful information. If there are no external reviews for a particular app, it is best to avoid downloading it. You should also check out the developer and check other apps just to be sure.

When installing a new app on your phone, pay close attention the first time you launch it. Most apps require permissions to do what they are intended to do, but malicious apps require even more permissions or permissions that don't really make sense. For example, a flashlight app does not need access to your contacts or phone dialer. If an app asks for permission to use Android's accessibility services, this can be a major red flag, as hackers often exploit this feature to make malware more powerful.

Another important thing to do to keep your Android phone safe is to install the latest updates as soon as they become available. Hackers love to prey on users with older software, and even small monthly updates can contain security patches and other fixes.

Spy lone apps are probably not going anywhere anytime soon, given how beneficial they can be to scammers. For this reason, be extra careful when downloading new apps to your Android phone or tablet, especially if you share the device with young children.