- ESET discovered 28 fraudulent apps on Google Play, downloaded over 7.3 million times, falsely claiming to reveal call/SMS/WhatsApp history.
- The apps generated fake data and charged subscriptions of between $6 and $80, with most victims in India.
- Google removed the apps and refunded Play-based payments, but victims of third-party payments must request a refund directly.
Google has removed more than two dozen Android apps from the Play Store for promising users something it can’t deliver – and charging a considerable amount of money for it.
Security researchers ESET found 28 apps on Google’s Android repository that claimed to provide call history for virtually any number. These apps also claimed that they could retrieve people’s SMS records and WhatsApp call logs.
But the “service” isn’t free: users were asked to purchase different subscription packages, ranging from one week to a year, and costing between $6 and $80.
Call the ghost
In total, the apps have been downloaded more than 7.3 million times, ESET said. The worst part is that they did not and could not provide the advertised service:
“In November 2025, we came across a post on Reddit discussing an app called Call History of Any Number, found on Google Play,” ESET explained. “Unsurprisingly, our analysis showed that the ‘call history’ data provided by this app is completely fabricated: the app generates random phone numbers and associates them with landline names, call times and call durations, which have been integrated directly into the code.
ESET named the campaign CallPhantom.
Most of the victims are in India. Many apps came with India’s +91 country code pre-selected and supported UPI, which is a payment system primarily used in that country. ESET said the majority (53.7%) of all CallPhantom detections worldwide were found in India.
Victims were offered three ways to pay for the service. One is through the official Google Play billing system, while the other two rely on third parties. Subscriptions made through Google Play can be canceled (and have been canceled for all apps removed from the repository) and victims can be refunded.
For the other two methods, users are advised to contact their payment provider for options.
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