Playstore malware Wordtrip & "System Update for Android" by Arum communications

[MrMobodies]

My dad asked me something was a scam, it was a scareware thing on a webpage. He said it'd appear everytime he play this game called WordTrip.



https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.playsimple.wordtrip&hl=en_GB

I thought there was more to it before I got the information straight that it only did it with this game but I found other things posing as system utilities that I uninstalled.

Looking though I find a bunch of InApp/Ad supported games I uninstalled, Carkit and I thought lets find out which services are uninstallable. You never know you might find something disguised as a system utility, service or driver like what I use to find with Windows and the malware that use to come from "FREE" games around the 2010's.

I found this thing which looked to me like it was a system utility by the manufacturer but has an uninstall then I got suspicious.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.arumcomm.playservicesinfo&hl=en_GB
System Update for Android Arum Communications
Contains ads In-app purchases

He don't remember installing this and didn't know what it was for.

Someone else thought the same too as being disguised:
https://support.google.com/android/thread/289477735/arum-communications-android-system-update?hl=en

Deej Free Original Poster Aug 6, 2024

arum communications- android system update?
This has appeared in my applications. I don't remember adding it.
I see it in the Play Store and the messages are mixed.

and checkout the reviews of those reporting they never remembered installing it and getting messages about viruses's being hacked and so on:

Karen - KK Foote 13 January 2024
Also has Japanese or Chinese language on app. Is this all legitimate? Why is there a app telling me I have viruses on your new system update page? NOT A GOOGLE APP. Busy busy screen. SPAM GOOGLE, STOP THIS APP 31 people found this review helpful

Jake E 18 May 2024
Battery Guru weaseled me into installing this, and it immediately started trying to hook me into installing a paid antivirus. Removed immediately.
8 people found this review helpful

Gloria Payne 22 May 2024 As soon as I downloaded this I started getting messages about a terrible virus on my system. This app IS the virus. 4 people found this review helpful

Caryn Underhill 1 June 2023
When I received a message saying it had messages waiting but I had to install a new message app, it installed the app but I lost the original version of my icons. Can you let me know what to do to go back to my original version? 7 people found this review helpful

Claire Boudreau 17 May 2024
Keeps appearing in my phone after I uninstall it. No idea how it got installed in the first place. 23 people found this review helpful

Michelle Fredericks 24 February 2024
I don't know what this garbage is or how it even got installed on my device. Seems sketchy to me to have an app to update your phone when that happens on its own. Even sketchier is that I did not install this. Google you need to do better at stopping trash like this from ending up in the play store.

Shaun Brown 31 July 2022
Giving this one star as there's no way to give it zero stars. Read the other reviews people, this 'app' appears to be malware and probably should be removed from Google Play. I don't even know how it got on my phone. Having read the many reviews saying that it is useless and seems to exist only to inflict ads on those who downloaded it, I don't trust it and have deleted it. 22 people found this review helpful

Pamela E Benn 26 June 2025
this app does not do anything it claims to do. my systems have not been updated and I keep getting strange messages saying that I've been hacked 76 times. 91 people found this review helpful

Another thing I am worried about:

Data safety 
Safety starts with understanding how developers collect and share your data. Data privacy and security practices may vary based on your use, region and age. The developer provided this information and may update it over time.

This app may share these data types with third parties
Financial info, App activity and 2 others

This app may collect these data types

Financial info, App activity and 2 others
Data shared and for what purpose
User payment info
App functionality, Analytics
Data can’t be deleted

Well that is NOT VERY SAFE if it is getting installed without their consent and disguised as other things.


The game which I think it started does similar in the advertising which suggest they might be a vulnerability.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.playsimple.wordtrip&hl=en_GB
Suprise Surpise

Bella Kelley 19 January 2025
virus installed on my phone without my consent
2 people found this review helpful

That'd could be that thing or something like it.

Neil 13 August 2025
Installed without permission. Literal malware.

Douglas Haas 11 December 2024
After the new update, the ads are insufferable. Not only are they after every puzzle solve, most of them are "instant install" so if you touch your screen anywhere, even just to try to back out, it takes you to the Play Store. The auto-generated/AI/generic response in the reviews is no help either. It's not even fun to play anymore with all the ads. Now the malware is preventing me from even playing, I wish there was a way to add pics to the reviews.

TheKenforce 3 September 2024
Downloading stuff on its own without consent and opens the damn app without user initiation. FRAG THAT. PROBABLY fully of malware or Spyware

Livianna 30 December 2023
Borderline malware I was playing a different game when I got an ad for this game. When the ad was finished it installed the game COMPLETELY without my permission. *I didn't tap install, it didn't send me to the app store, just started installing, I didn't even have time to close the ad. Game is boring and simple and the manipulative advertising that forces you to install it is f'ed up.
22 people found this review helpful

*Assumes control of the user's device and their input.

Jeff R. 29 June 2023
Possible malware, installed on device without permissions
1 person found this review helpful

Susan Sharp 01 February 2023
These Games byPlaySimple stink. So to speak it's the adverts forcing me to download whatever ads Are forced on us. It sends me off 2 places to download whatever game is advertised at the time... 13 people found this helpful

Carly Chambers 21 September 2025
Was fun until they kept suggesting others apps to install so I deleted the app"

Looks to me like a NETWORK of malware.

Absolutely terrible. I hope Google does something about this. Advertising is one thing, exposing people to malware sites is another, ALLOWING something to be installed within the game intentionally and forced or without the user's knowledge consent (in the same manner as the adverts) sounds to me like vulnerability and unsafe. Basically they have assumed permissions to do what they like once installed.

My dad did install this word game which could have in turn installed the other things and that "System update" package. All he saw was the browser opening up and don't remember approving the other things like from the reviews above.

Sorry how long this post is. I am very worried and convinced they had copied his personal stuff from his phone.

I did warn him not to do download these "FREE" games from my experience where adverts take over and one things leads to another and here we are.

With the negative complaints about what it does and I don't mean the adverts I am surprise they are still there and still allowed to do this.

developer@arumarum.com
(주)알음커뮤니케이션 (Alum Communication Co., Ltd)
금천구 범안로 1126, 4층 405호(가산동, 대륭21차) 405, 4th floor, 1126 Beoman-ro, Geumcheon-gu (Gasan-dong, Daeryung 21st)
금천구, 서울특별시 08595  (Geumcheon-gu, Seoul)
South Korea
+82 10-8173-0405

support@playsimple.in
PLAYSIMPLE GAMES PTE. LTD.
playsimple.sg@gmail.com
C/O: RIKVIN PTE LTD
30 Cecil Street
Singapore 049712
+65 8733 0073

I see the game what looks like it from India and the System update thing from South Korea so not from the same place.

Do you think he should factory reset his phone and change the passwords to what accounts he'd been using on it?